The two-day festival is such an important event for JLW because it requires the help of more than 600 JLW volunteers, it unofficially kicks off the major events for our 2013 year and it perfectly encapsulates the JLW’s focus on literacy in the greater DC area. Not to mention, the weekend is a ridiculous amount of fun!
Carly Rockstroh, the Rising Chair for Holiday Shops, shares one of her many National Book Festival memories to give everyone an idea of what you can expect if you sign up for a volunteer shift.
Though chairing the NBF in 2011 was a dream come true, one of my favorite NBF memories was from my first book festival in 2007 as a New Member. I was assigned to the book signing line for Patricia MacLachlan, author of Sarah Plain and Tall, and found myself managing a line filled with anxious elementary school girls. I noticed a bunch of the girls had American Girl dolls with them, and they told me the author has written a few books for AG -- one of my childhood favorite series. We started talking about our favorite books from AG and other books on any elementary school girl's must-read list. Sharing my enthusiasm for reading with these girls and their parents was so much fun and showed the power books and literacy can have on people of all ages. Since this was my *first* JLW volunteer experience, you could say I was hooked from day 1, and set the goal then and there to chair the crazy NBF event one day, as it is really such a special event for our League and avid readers from all over.
Sign up today for your volunteer shift at the National Book Festival. The Junior League of Washington needs you to make the event a success and to make dreams come true.
