Your page 3 stories are heading to the library

Who is this week’s profile? At the risk of sounding like WaltKelly’s Pogo, “We have seen the enemy and he is us! Yes, us. Ifyou’ve ever been profiled, photographed, written about or reportedon in the Shelter Island Reporter, you may well find yourself in”Island Voices, a book of Island stories set to be on the bookstandthis coming summer.

To begin at the beginning, Town Councilman Ed Brown stopped meone day last fall to say he’d read a profile in the paper, liked itand suggested, “You should get all that stuff together, Carol, andpublish it. People would love it. Make it a benefit for someplace.

I pointed out there was only one small problem with his idea andthat was that nothing I ever wrote for the paper belonged to me. Hemade a small dismissive-type gesture and replied, “Well, there mustbe a way around that.

Of course, there was. Cara Loriz, our editor, loved the idea.Moving up the line, so did Andrew Olsen, the Reporter’s publisherin Mattituck. So did Troy Gustavson, the owner of the Times/ReviewNewspapers. So all hands were on board with backup and support (seethe ad on page 6) and what was really more important, enthusiasmfor the project and faith in the idea that it could be pulledoff.

It’s not exactly an Island-wide undertaking, but hopefully itwill be a book that any Islander will enjoy reading. You won’t haveto have been “profiled to find items that you remember, laughed ator were part of. Feel free to get in touch if you have ideas orsuggestions. The book won’t hold them all, but I will be glad toconsider them. My email address is noted below and I’m in the phonebook. Send in or drop off photographs that you think are “bookworthy. Note that they must be 300 dpi or better. Make sure yourname and contact information are identified.

After a good deal of discussion, the initial plan has come downto this: the book will be titled “Island Voices, subtitled”1652-2010, Shelter Island, New York. It will be self-published,small (6 by 9 inches) and up to 200 pages, including black andwhite photographs, with a soft cover. One hundred copies will begiven to the Shelter Island Public Library to sell at the pricethey determine, with all proceeds from sales going to the library’sfundraising efforts.

In order to cover the costs of compiling, formatting andpublishing the book, a budget for the project was set at $5,000. Sofar a little over $1,800 has been raised. I hope, of course, toreach the eventual goal but one way or another, and regardless ofwhat happens, the book will go forward.

There will be a special page in the opening section toacknowledge those whose contributions have been $500 or more. Andif you send a contribution of any amount, know that you have mysincerest thanks.

c.galligan@sireporter.com