It takes a heck of a lot of effort to raise an elephant. Even if you set aside the gestation period of nearly two years, baby elephants often aren’t weaned until they are five years old, and really aren’t mature until about 18. Luckily, elephant herds share in caring for the herd, and a mama elephant can count on the support of the other females around her.
How has support from others helped you to bring something big to fruition?
When I worked as a public library youth consultant at the MO State Library we were able to develop a series of working conferences for children’s and young adults’ librarians around the state. We often held one and a half day programs to include book reviewing; a program with an outstanding author or illustrator; or another authority in the field. Fortunately many public libraries, small or large, were able to pay travel and overnight expenses for the participants. Even visiting together and sharing experiences added to better working conditions for them. I had so much assistance in the planning, the obtaining of famous and exciting author/illustrators in attendance, a follow up list of reviewed books later sent out to help participants with book selection…truly impossible without group (or committee) cooperation.. These conferences , sometimes held in different cities of the state, gave all of us the opportunity to see the workings of the hosting libraries. Truly a combination of planners and workers who, without this cooperation, would never have been able to offer successful programs.