Last month, the Lake County Big Read provided a variety of activities, programs, and opportunities to read and discuss featured novel “The Joy Luck Club” by Amy Tan, additional works by Tan, and stories for children set in the Chinese American culture.

It was a joy to collaborate with so many agencies, businesses, schools, community leaders and residents!

The Big Read is a National Endowment for the Arts program, designed to revitalize and restore reading to the center of American culture, by encouraging students and citizens of all ages to read for pleasure and to take part in community activities, reading groups, and school events that aim to promote the enjoyment of literature.

The Lake County Office of Education, the Literacy Task Force and the NEA partnership with Arts Midwest collaborated to support this year’s Big Read in Lake County.

I’d like to take this time to give thanks to the following partners to whom the program owes its success:

The Big Read Advisory Committee: Lori White, Wilda Shock, Shelly Mascari, Tamsen Nash, Alethea Eason, Bernie Butcher and Scott Hopkins.

Program volunteers and partners: Patti Diener, Chic Le Chef Caterers (Julie Hoskins and staff), Carla Hoff and the Lake/Mendocino Reading Council, Jamey Gill and the Mendo/Lake Credit Union, Shelby Posada and the Lake County Arts Council, Dwain Goforth and Camisha Knowlton at the Lower Lake School House Museum, Carl Porter, the Bad Girls Book Club, the Cobb Mt. Teacher’s Book Group, Allison and Greg at Mt. High Coffee and Books, Tanya, Micki and Grace at Star Gardens Nursery, Bernie Butcher and staff at the Tallman Hotel, Bert Hutt and his troupe, Nura Brown and Jolene Chappelle at The Harbor on Main, the Lake County Library – Christopher Veach and branch staf, Jo Bennett, Alan and Margaret Mathison, Gina Fortino Dickson, Susan Feiler at the Lake County Wine Studio, Darlene Hecomovich-Friends of Boggs Mountain, Olga Martin Steele and Andy Weiss at KPFZ, and Lake County Record-Bee and Lake County News for caring and accurate support, as well as timely assistance with program promotion.

I’d like to bestow a very special acknowledgment and thank you to guest speakers Cathy Kroll from Sonoma State, and local author Carolyn Wing Greenlee, who provided brilliantly rich programs for our kickoff and closing events, and to local author Alethea Eason for creating a writing workshop that was splendidly inspiring.

Special thanks to Yuba College staff for a hosting a wonderful Chinese food banquet and student performance, and the Friends of Mendocino College for hosting Carolyn Wing Greenlee's speaker engagement.

Thank you to Wally Holbrook and Tim Gill at the Lake County Office of Education for turning my motivation for a Big Read in Lake County into a reality. And most importantly, thank you to those who participated in and supported our program activities, which celebrated a brilliant American novel.

Robin Fogel-Shrive is program director for The Big Read of Lake County, Calif.