Since the KXLY TV spot and the article in the food section in The Spokesman-Review about the cookbook, we've been getting a lot of orders through the mail here in the Leadership Spokane office.  What's remarkable--and moving--to me in this age of Facebook and blogs and PayPal is the nature of these orders.  They look like they were written by my Grandma.  We're seeing old-fashioned stationery, elegant (sometimes shaky) penmanship, carefully filled out checks and lots of little notes.  "I want to support the students in their project."  "I must commend you for your contribution to the community."  "Thank you for caring about the poor."

These letters are coming from all over the county, and they remind me that there are still a lot of people who read the paper and define text as the contents of a book.  I also suspect that many of these people are hearing about Leadership Spokane for the first time.  As Mark Pond, one of the members of the project team, writes in the blog, "The food produced in a community garden is often a mere sideshow when compared with the sense of camaraderie and feelings of community that are part-and-parcel of having strangers coming together to work toward a common goal."  I agree completely.  But, I wonder if he or any of the project team dreamed that this little cookbook would be a means of building community with a group of former strangers who care about their neighbors and like to cook and read the paper.

Linda can be reached at lfinney@leadershipspokane.org.

Questions?  Need an application or want to refer a candidate?  Visit the website or contact Executive Director Linda Finney at lfinney@leadershipspokane.org. Informational briefings will be held in the SRBC at 801 W. Riverside on March 3, 9 and 31 (details on the website).  The Youth Leadership Spokane application will be posted shortly.

Leadership Spokane in Action

Class notes