Being drawn to our display of bright colored orange, green, red, blue, and purple pens on the public library reference desk, a homeless man asked if the pens were free and how to get one.
The librarian who was working the desk with me that morning said: “You have to sign-up for our summer reading program.”
“Is there any other way than that to get one," he said.
“No," she said.
“Well, let’s get you signed-up for summer reading, and I’ll get you a pen,” I interjected.
Without a telephone number listed on his registration, it wasn’t likely that he could win one of the prize drawings, but he was not hoping for a shot at a gift card, he just wanted a pen.
He got a bright orange pen, and I garnered one more statistic for our library.
With his stack of books topped by a German-English dictionary, the man took his pen and said: ” Ma'am I promise, I’ll do my reading. I’ll come into the library every day and read for three hours. I promise.”
