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<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Robert Frank, City Editor frank@heraldnet.com   Published: Friday, July 4, 2008 Camano library sale an emotional, financial success There was a successful book sale Saturday. Camano Island Friends raised more than $1,000 to support the year-old Camano Island Library. It was emotional. Becky Wietzke, the group's president, says two college students were there buying children's books for their upcoming student teaching experiences in the fall. "An older man provided payment for their books without their knowing about it until they came to pay," Wietzke says. "All of us who are teachers shed a few tears of gratitude over his kindness and his support of our profession." Again and again, workers saw how putting books into the hands of young and old is a delightful and touching experience. "Someone else found the favorite book of a child who had died. It had been searched for to no avail, as it was out of print, and there it was, right on the top of a box. A young man appeared at the sale, having lost his way from Anacortes to Seattle while returning to Utah following the deaths of his mother and aunt." The lost young man picked up a copy of Emily Dickinson's poetry, Wietzke says, and opened to "Hope is the Thing with Feathers." He cried and told one of the volunteers that he had never read poetry before and that this poem was just what he needed at this time of great sadness in his life. Nobody knew his name. The first time psychologist Patricia Bloom saw him was at a Fourth of July picnic on a Canadian beach. "It was late afternoon, we were all hungry, waiting for our various fathers to finish grilling the dogs and steaks," said the Camano Island woman. "Firecrackers were already going off and people were running after a black and white dog who had streams of sausages hanging from his mouth." The canine thief, with large, soft eyes that melted hearts and had a personality to beat the band, continued to steal picnic hot dogs, she says. Eventually, Black and White was hit by a car. Neighbors appealed to the old town vet to treat the homeless dog. "He was a cranky, crabby old man, given to such a sense of self-importance that he blandly disregarded any of our local laws," bloom said. "He speeded recklessly, went under the gates that announced the passage of our local train and ignored patiently waiting lines while he cut rudely in front." The vet said to bring in the mutt -- and plenty of cash. Word quickly spread and donations poured in from a 50-mile radius. "Black and White got around," Bloom said. "It seemed everyone knew and loved him." The dog died of his injuries. The vet died a few months later, killed when he attempted to beat another train to a crossing. " 'Well,' we all said, 'it was just a matter of time.' " Melissa Shipp, who works at Virginia's Feminine Boutique in Smokey Point, remembers Fourth of July parties when she was a girl. "My sisters and I, along with friends from our neighborhood would bring out our boom box and play music while we lit off smoke bombs and lightening flashers at the same time," Shipp said. "We would pretend we were in a dance club with a strobe light and fog machine and would dance in the street to our favorite songs." Fun Fact: Valerie Smith of Darrington, a high school secretary, will enjoy Fourth of July events today in Darrington. She said if all goes as planned, Roscoe Howard will be in town, serving a treat he makes most every year using an old-fashioned ice cream maker he hauls on a trailer. Small town fun at it finest, that is for sure, Smith said. Columnist Kristi O'Harran: 425-339-3451, oharran@heraldnet.com

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