Editor, The Herald:

The Virginia Children’s Book Festival offers Longwood University our heartfelt thanks for hosting our inaugural festival: Suzy Szasz Palmer and the Greenwood Library, Conference and Scheduling, Justin Pope and the President’s office, Matthew McWilliams, Mary Jo Creaney Stockton and David Whaley in PR, Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity, Clint Wright and William Lynn in Audio Visual Services, Aramark, professors Jeff Halliday, Dave Magill, Rhonda Brock-Servais, Carrie C Gonzalez, Jennifer Miskec, Larissa Fergeson, E.J. and Ken in the library, all the housekeeping staff, the police department, student volunteers, Emily Grabiec and everyone at the Longwood Center for the Visual Arts and everyone I have omitted-the help and assistance Longwood University provided is endless. Thank you for your participation and support; it was a smash.

We are grateful to Justin Reid and the Moton Museum for sponsoring and promoting our Civil Rights in Children’s Literature panel. It was extremely well-attended and the feedback from it was excellent. VCBF authors who participated and attended were in awe of the Moton story and touched by Ms. Edwilda Isaac’s participation. It was a memorable event for everyone who witnessed it.

We also thank the town of Farmville and the support we received from downtown businesses, local citizens and the town itself. Thank you for the sponsorship, the window displays, the help with parking and so many other little things that went into making the Virginia Children’s Book Festival such a success. Our authors, participants and out-of-town visitors were taken in by both Longwood’s campus and Farmville itself, and mentioned how eager they are to return, almost as eager as we are to bring the festival back in 2015.

Thank you again to Longwood University, Farmville and its citizens for your help, support and most of all, your attendance. We couldn’t have asked for better inaugural year.

Juanita M. Giles

Executive Director

Virginia Children’s Book Festival