2004 Reading Rendezvous

The Anchorage literary community came together on Saturday, May 22, for the fourth annual Reading Rendezvous, a celebration of the joy of reading and the kickoff event for the Municipal Libraries’ Summer Reading Program.

Led by Anchorage School District Superintendent Carol Comeau acting as grand marshal, the event began with a parade that started at the Z. J. Loussac library and, accompanied by bagpipers from the Alaska Highlanders, marched across the parking lot to Cuddy Family Midtown Park. A really big Clifford the Big Red Dog guarded the entrance to the park where visitors were greeted with live music by The Emeralds and Seekbob, two bands of young, but impressively accomplished musicians. Reading Rainbow Young Writers and Illustrators Contest winners as well as the winners of the People Mover and Anchorage Library Contest were recognized in a mid-afternoon ceremony.

Photograph by Mark Weber.

The theme for the 2004 Summer Reading Program is “Discover New Trails @ Your Library,” and many of the more than 1,000 children and adults who joined in the fun and free festivities responded by dressing as explorers.

Along with the Cat in the Hat and a purple cow, participants roamed the park visiting booths where literary groups, social service organizations, and vendors offered activities including making bookmarks, writing and decorating postcards, reading to dogs, and completing a passport which entitled the bearer to a free book or game. Kids could clamber on a city bus, tour a fire truck, or ride in a little red wagon. A bookstore and a publisher provided the opportunity to meet children’s books author Michael Bania and Amy Meissner, illustrator of the award-winning Seldovia Sam series. Magician Don Russell provided a hilarious finale to the event.

Photograph by Mark Weber.

Reading Rendezvous 2004 was sponsored by Anchorage Municipal Libraries, the Alaska Center for the Book, Friends of the Library, and ConocoPhillips, Alaska with the participation and support of many organizations including LitSite Alaska, Anchorage’s Promise, KAKM-TV, Friends of Pets, UAA Campus Bookstore, Alaska Northwest Books, First Book Alaska, Blood Bank of Alaska, People Mover, Anchorage Fire Department, Title Wave Books, Alaska Library Association, Anchorage’s Promise, Anchorage Museum Shop, the Girl Scouts, and Sophie and the Wagon Girls.