The Borrowers!

"It's necessary to start most work alone. But I'm tickled to death when I can pull somebody in or join someone, whether it's borrowing poetry or travelling with an associate."
- Jenny Holzer 

The Big Burnage Borrow Begins!

The uptake was excellent. We received a very short notice message at 1:30pm that the MEN would be in attendance at Burnage Library at 2:30pm. Out campaign list emails and text messages to mobile and land-lines had been working flawlessly for the duration of the campaign so far. It was critical it didn't fail now! 

The message was written to all supporters and broadcast around. The emails sent without problem. The broadcast text was the next job.

The messages was written straight into text. The send button was pressed and all we could do was wait.

10 minutes past and the hourglass on the phone was still sending them. Then the time appeared next to the message and we knew it had gone. We breathed a sigh of relief.

At 2:30pm I made it to the library. Outside our faithful and hardy supporters stood with our trusty banner as others went inside to borrow books. Initially, I picked up my allocation in small books but then had a second thought as I am quite a portly chap and could carry heavier books. Plus, I didn't want it to seem like I was borrowing Mr Men books and leaving some others to carry much heavier publications... that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

fig 1 - The first shelf is empty

The queue started to grow. The MEN photographer was here at 2:30pm on the dot as promised. He took pictures of all the borrowing and the queue, which by this time was quite substantial. John Leech MP and councillor Bill Fisher were in attendance and spoke to me about a report I had written. Several pictures were taken of all of the contingent and at one point it was difficult to manoeuvre around the library for the bodies :-) Needless to say, we were delighted with the turnout and at such short notice too!

The MEN photographer took pictures of us, the children, balloons that people brought, our placards, the queue, the library staff etc. etc. (between you and me, we may have a new face of the campaign :-)

fig 2 - More empty shelves :-)

The borrow continues until 12pm on the 6th April. At 2pm tomorrow in Burnage Library is the meeting with MCC Deputy Leader Sue Murphy, who heads up the consultation. We want to show our support so if you can, come and borrow some books between now and 12pm tomorrow and if you can spare the time, stay for our campaign meeting 2pm - 4pm, 6th April in Burnage Library! 

A Big THANK YOU to everyone for the support they will give this weekend. We have two weeks to make our voices heard!

EA