The Bright Lights Book Project: Touching the Stars
Contributed by Alys Culhane
When I began looking for appreciative readers for local books, I decided that I’d distribute books in a unique variety of ways – bicycle, horseback, bookmobile, being a few such options. I’d imitate the early Greek philosophers, who taught individuals as they travelled by foot. I too would then be peripatetic.
This is not what came to be. In fact, the opposite occurred. Two years into the project, and I was distributing books by car, to set locations. My distribution route included newspaper boxes and bookcases. The books were first housed in the Meeting House on Bailey Street, then in the former banquet room of the historic Eagle Hotel.
I had glimpses of my original vision at the 2025 Alaska State Fair. During the fair, the Bright Lights Book Project and Kid’s Kupboard occupied the Wineck Barn. There we provided fairgoers with information on the history of the barn and promoted nutritional literacy.
BLBP volunteers had also placed 12 newspaper boxes at various sites and adjacent to the Red Trail. For the first 14 days of the fair, I arrived at the fairgrounds early, in order to avoid traffic jams. I also stocked the boxes with theme appropriate books. For example, I put animal books in the petting zoo and reptile books in the reptile box.
In the afternoons I hung out in the Wineck Barn, which was a rest stop for incoming and outgoing fair attendees. Sometimes the barn was packed, and other times near empty. On down times, I stood in the doorway and watched the fairgoers, many of whom were pushing strollers, go by. Some stopped and took photos by the FA R letters.
On the second-to-last day it occurred to me to further promote the BLBP by doing a second, later in the day distribution. I asked Vicki, a volunteer/BLBP board member, if she’d like to accompany me.
She was up for this. We donned literary top hats, which were made by BLBP volunteer Sharon Peek, filled the BLBP wagon with books, trundled down the ramp, and stopped at base of the Red Trail, adjacent to the yellow Alpine Historical Park newspaper box. There, curious passerby asked us about the hats. This enabled us to tell them about the Bright Lights Book Project vision and mission statements, which are to envision literacy to change lives by making books accessible to appreciative readers of all ages.
A half-hour later we continued on our way and next stopped in front of Brad’s reptile house newspaper box. Prior to the fair, Lynsy Johnson painted this box, which features reptiles reading books. A woman holding a Madagascar cockroach mentioned in passing that Cyndy Lopez and her real live alligator, Alli Gator, would be hosting a story time at 4:00 p.m.
Vicki and agreed to return at this time. In the meantime, we spent time conversing with parents and children at various stopping points, some being the Raven newspaper box at Raven Hall, the Petting Zoo box in the agricultural barn, the Beehive box in the bee booth, the 4-H box in the Franz Equestrian Center walkway, and the Garden box in the Eckert Garden. We also stopped at the Irwin House, filled the box with quilting books, and admired Susan Franznick’s first place bookshelf quilt.
We returned to the Wineck Barn, restocked, and made our way back to Brad’s Reptile House. Cyndy was sitting on the lawn. Alli rested on her lap. Cyndy, Vicki, and I agreed that Vicki and I would pass out books and encourage children to attend the story time session. In minutes, a dozen or so children had gathered around Cyndy and her charge. The children listened quietly as Cindy began reading.
All the while, Alli, was very relaxed and (no kidding) grinning. At the conclusion of the reading, I slipped books in lime green GCI bags and passed them out to the children. And one by one, they came up and petted Alli.
This particular story time was for me the high point the Alaska State Fair, for the BLBP was promoting animal literacy. For instance, a child who pets an alligator is going to think twice about purchasing an alligator purse or taking up alligator wrestling.
Vicki and I eventually made our way back to the Wineck Barn, which late on a Sunday afternoon provided us with a respite from the crowded walkways.
The following day we again took to the fair trails, with the BLBP wagon in hand. The crowd on this, the final day of the fair, was less than the day before. This enabled Vicki and me to talk to dozens more fair goers about the BLBP.
In conclusion, I was pleased, for I’d touched the stars in doing what I’d originally set out to do, which was to make the BLBP books even more accessible to the 2025 fairgoers.