By Joyce Kryszak
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wbfo/local-wbfo-975550.mp3
Buffalo, NY – A Williamsville family just finished up a year-long pilgrimage to visit every one of Erie County's 37 libraries.
A year ago, the family took a rare break from reading to watch a movie, "Julie and Julia." The premise of the movie, a woman's mission to cook all of Julia Child's recipes in one year, inspired the family to pursue their own passion - libraries.
So, Al and Stacey Jafarjian told their two girls, 'hey, let's see if we can visit all 37 county libraries!'
But Al Jafarjian, the dad, said they did more than stamp library cards. He said they turned every visit into mini-explorations of the region.
"In Eden we went to the kazoo factory and toured it and made a kazoo. In Elma we went to the Elma library then in the afternoon went sledding at Elma Meadows Park," said Al Jafarjian. "We tried to make it a destination and get to know our community, instead of just popping into every library."
11-year old Anna Jafarjan said it is hard for her to pick a favorite.
"But, I have to say, my favorite was probably Newstead. It had the big picture windows in the kids section and butterflies hanging from the windows...it was pretty," said Anna Jafarjian.
But Anna said the best part for her and her eight-year old sister Mary Grace was finding new treasures.
"If we hadn't gone to all the libraries, we would have missed out on a lot of books," said Anna.
Cleary, Anna did not mind spending every weekend in a library. But she did have one concern.
"I was like, do you really think we can do this in a year? Because there's a lot of libraries," said Anna.
Mom, Stacey Jafarjian said she got a little nervous about that sometimes too.
"A couple times over vacations or on the weekends we would do hat tricks and just kind of cruise and do three at a time," said Stacey Jafarjian.
But Stacey says even the brief visits gave them new appreciation. She said keeping all 37 libraries open is critical.
"Especially for the kids who might not have book cases full of books at home or internet access at home, it's most important in those communities and in the smaller libraries. So, yeah, for them to close would be a tragedy," said Stacey.
You can read more about the Jafarjian family's library adventures on their blog. at Operation Reading Road Trip.