Rotary club auction spells success on behalf of literacy

Bill Reynolds | Aug 21, 20190

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THE BEES KNEES – Bidders swarmed to the silent auction table at Maple Hall Saturday night, part of the La Conner Rotary Club’s festive Roaring 20s-themed Harvesting Hope Auction fundraiser for local scholarships and literacy projects. The event also included a multi-course surf-n-turf dinner catered by La Conner Seafood & Prime Rib, a live auction and recognition of civic leader and business owner Janna Gage as the local service club’s choice as its 2019 Paul Harris Fellow recipient. – Photo courtesy of Bill Reynolds

La Conner Rotarians closed the book on another major fundraiser in support of student literacy and scholarships Saturday night.

And this time it was a feel-good story if there ever was one.

The local service club’s 13th annual Harvesting Hope Auction at Maple Hall raised over $60,000 to help “shine a light on literacy,” a campaign further highlighted when Janna Gage of Seaport Books was honored during the event as La Conner Rotary’s 2019 Paul Harris Award recipient.

The Paul Harris Fellow program recognizes persons who meet high professional and personal standards in service to their communities.

That certainly describes Gage, a Weekly News contributor who has tirelessly promoted an appreciation for reading through multiple roles – as a bookstore owner, research librarian, newspaper columnist, author and historian.

Her love of history dovetailed nicely with a Rotary auction format that encouraged attendees to don Roaring ‘20s attire.

A multi-course surf and turf dinner catered by La Conner Seafood & Prime Rib helped create an ambiance worthy of any Gatsby party – minus the mass pool splash, of course.

Gage herself was saluted for having led a novel life, one marked by a series of unique chapters.

A fourth generation Skagit County resident, Gage grew up near La Conner, on a farm along the north fork of the Skagit River. She attended La Conner Schools and Skagit Valley College, all experiences that sparked her passion for local history and public service.

“Janna,” says Dan Royal, immediate Past President of the Skagit County Pioneer Association, “has been one of the most enthusiastic promoters of Skagit County history.”

That is borne out in her published work, which includes a dozen books, half of which she penned herself, the other half in collaboration with others.

Still, there is much more to her story, La Conner Rotarians stress.

They point to the fact that Gage has built a log house of her own design, refurbished a 30-foot sailboat, and was instrumental in rallying community support to build a skateboard park here for local youth.

She has also served as volunteer director of the La Conner Senior Center, volunteered with Skagit Hospice and presided over both the Skagit County Pioneer Association and Billikens Club of La Conner.

Two years ago she was recipient of the Skagit County Historical Society’s Heritage Award.

“She is passionate about the history of our county and especially that of La Conner,” Skagit County Historical Museum Director Jo Wolfe said of Gage at the time. “She shares that passion with others and encourages and challenges us to continue to preserve, protect and educate people about the history of Skagit County.”

Gage has built a resume of which Rotary International founder Paul Harris would be proud.

Harris, a Chicago attorney, formed that city’s Rotary Club in 1905 as a vehicle whereby professionals with diverse backgrounds could exchange ideas and form lasting, meaningful friendships enabling them to better serve their communities.

Gage is one who rarely lacks for ideas. Seaport Books ranks among the best of them. Her rationale was that every small destination town – like La Conner – needs a good bookstore.

Since its opening in 2017, Seaport Books has hosted numerous book launches and meet-and-greets with featured authors. Gage has also teamed with Seaport Landing Building owner Rich Stackhouse to create a “History Wall” of vintage photographs adorning walls of the building’s breezeway.

La Conner Rotarians took note. They saw Gage as the ideal Paul Harris selection, a perfect fit for a club that each year donates books and dictionaries en masse to local children, and whose auction this year struck a distinctly historic theme.

The result was a large turnout with generous auction bidding, an evening that produced a true storybook ending.

Area residents remember — Books a luxurious necessity

Janna Gage

I was born into a home without books. Books were a luxury like store-bought clothes, indoor plumbing and higher education. But I was a very curious kid and simply wanted to learn things. An uncle visited us on many Sundays and brought the newspaper so we kids could read the comics. With the help of my older sister I taught myself to read well before first grade. In the summer of 1945, when I was five, a neighbor brought over the Mount Vernon Herald to show my mother the headline. When he held it up I could read it myself. It said, “War Over.”

When I was in fourth grade, Mrs. Church, my teacher, knew I had already read our entire reading book and told me that I could walk downtown to the La Conner Memorial Library and get a library card from Mrs. Leamer.

I didn’t know exactly where the library was but thought I could figure it out. I found the library in the building on First Street where Bears and Friends is now located. Mrs. Leamer showed me where the books for fourth graders were. I saw a full shelf of orange clothbound books and selected the biography of Benjamin Franklin.

Then I asked Mrs. Leamer what all those other books were. She said they were for grownups. I looked carefully around the room. I thought the idea was when you got a library card you were supposed to read all the books in the library. I thought I could do that, so I asked her if I could take one of those. She thought it might be alright. When I selected “I Married Adventure” by Osa Johnson, in its alluring zebra print cover, she raised her eyebrows. But she let me have it. She cautioned me that this 300 page tome, was due back in two weeks whether I had finished it or not.

Well, I read it all. It opened the world of the South Seas, the tribes of New Guinea, and yes, much more; headhunters, witchcraft and people who wore very few clothes. I never looked back. I have had a library card ever since.

Thank you, Mrs. Leamer for giving me the book I wanted. Thank you Rotary Club for putting books into the hands of children being raised without them. Thank you for honoring me with the Paul Harris community service award.

I close with this quotation from Garrison Keiller:

Ages before the loudspeaker and the camera, came this lovely thing, this portable garden, which survives television, computers, censorship and poor schools. Along with the Constitution, the blues, and baseball, the democracy of letters is a common glory in our midst, visible in every library and bookstore. These stacks of boards contain our common life and keeps it safe against the miserable days when meanness operates with a free hand. When the lonesome reader opens the cover, the word is resurrected. The day can come next month or a hundred years from now: A book will wait.

Janna Gage, co-owner of Seaport Books, is a fourth generation Skagitonian, with many deserved recognitions and awards, including the La Conner Rotary Club’s 2019 Paul Harris Community Service Award.