Back in August when Louisville got slammed with some quick and heavy rainfall, one of the casualties was the downtown branch of the Louisville Free Public Library. (click here to see images of the flooding and damage!)

While it’s true, I don’t live in Louisville and can’t utilize this library, it still hurts my heart. As a kid, my mom, sister and I spent lots of time during the summer in our local library, enjoying the air conditioning, participating in the summer reading program, story hours, plays etc. My mom worked hard to instill a love of and appreciation for books and reading. I consider myself to be an excellent reader, and while my own children take up much of my free time anymore, when possible I like to get my hands on a book. When my husband and I were dating, many of our date nights consisted of evenings spent at the book store, perusing the clearance racks and making wish lists, we’d go to the home and garden section and look at books and talk about our future home, I’d giggle nervously as we walked past the adult ‘self-improvement’ section, we’d snag classics at discounted price to begin building our future children’s library. Books were important to me then, and they are now. I owe a lot of that to that time spent at the library. Without the library, I would never have been able to get my hands on as many books as I did. I would check out 10 books at a time and be back a week later for more.

As my children are growing and my son on the verge of reading, it warms me to see his passion for books, just like his father and I. For birthdays and Christmas, we typically request family members who’d like to celebrate with us that they consider gifting a copy of their favorite book as opposed to a plastic, new toy from Target.

So needless to say, when I learned about the damage that had been done to the library and saw how others were already organizing efforts to raise money, I contacted my friend Michelle of ConsumingLouisville.com. She was putting together a bake-sale to raise money. I told her I would donate a portrait package for her to use as she saw fit. She has, in her infinite wisdom, placed the portrait package up for auction at ConsumingLouisville.com. So hop on over there and place your bid, you’ll be helping the library and get some awesome pictures in the end!