What I’m Thankful for this Year is…

by Robin Ferrier, Vice Chair, Gaithersburg Book Festival

This year, I’m thankful for the Gaithersburg Book Festival. Maybe to you, dear reader, that statement sounds self-serving coming from a committee member who puts a LOT of time into this endeavor. But my love of the GBF goes far beyond my wanting to see this event survive and thrive year after year. It’s tied in to a lot of things, including my love of reading and writing, the joy I get in watching others meet new authors and new books, the fun of seeing a child meet an author of book he or she loved reading…

But more than any of that, my love for the Gaithersburg Book Festival is tied to the people.

When you’re in high school and college, your friend base is given to you. It stems from your classmates and the activities in which you participate. Then you graduate and you step out into that big bad place we call… The Real World. If you’re lucky, some of your high school and college friends move to the same city where you do. And maybe you find your way and make friends in your workplace. I’ve had the benefit of both those scenarios.

But here’s my big secret: These days, many of my closest friends are the people I’ve met through the Gaithersburg Book Festival. These are people who share my passion for books and reading. Who get just as excited as I do about discovering a new author and reading a new book. These are people whose bedside tables and/or Nooks/Kindles/other e-readers are filled to overflowing with books they want to read. And these are the people I now turn to to help me celebrate my wins and get through my losses.

It’s also about the authors. I have met so many wonderful authors during the past few years, authors with whom I have stayed connected thanks to Facebook. People like Eleanor Brown (“The Weird Sisters”) who squealed like a little kid on Christmas and declared that meeting Ron Charles (fiction editor of the Washington Post book section) was “like meeting Justin Bieber.” (It was one of my all-time favorite moments.) People like Jon Methven (“This Is Your Captain Speaking”), Garrett Peck (“The Smithsonian Castle and the Seneca Quarry”) and mystery author extraordinaire Brad Parks who keep me laughing like few others can. Authors like Caroline Leavitt (“Is This Tomorrow”) who stunned me with her generosity when she judged last year’s high school student short story contest and wrote touching letters to each finalist detailing what she loved about their work. I can only imagine having received a letter like that when I was a high school student with dreams of becoming an author some day. The generosity of these authors — and their excitement upon interacting with their fans — is so encouraging and uplifting.

Yes, the Gaithersburg Book Festival is primarily about books. But it’s also about a group of amazing people who work hard daily to make it happen for the people of this region. So here, I thank all of you who volunteer your time to make it happen, who travel from near and far to talk about your work, who come just for the day to enjoy our festival and make it the success it has been to date.

And all I ask of you, my readers, is that on May 17, 2014, when you’re enjoying yourself at our festival, you go up to one volunteer, one author, and thank them for being there.