I recently had the pleasure of attending a bilingual conference here in Nova Scotia called Celebrating Communities. When wearing my Teen Librarian hat, I am involved in a group called BaM! Body And Mind, a collaborative program that encourages youth to be active, in well, both body and mind. Our program was a finalist for one of the Celebrating Communities awards. We didn’t win, but that isn’t really what matters, because everyone at this conference was a winner. I know that sounds cliché, but in this case, I found it to be true. This was not a library conference. But it had everything to do with libraries, because we spent 3 days celebrating the best of the community we were in. The conference is presented every 2 years, and a different community is chosen to host and be highlighted. The thing I really came back from this conference with was the idea of CELEBRATING. I heard very little grousing in the 3 days I was at this conference. The idea of “Celebrating” really took hold, and besides hearing from speakers who regaled us with the stories of their successes, the participants all had good things to talk about. In these times of economic uncertainty and money woes, it was refreshing to be amongst folks who have hope, good ideas, and a real ambition to make their communities thrive. And while libraries were not on the agenda, several of the presenters mentioned libraries, because we all know that the library can be a pillar of the community. Let’s all remember to celebrate that, every day, even in small ways. So go on, celebrate YOUR community. Celebrate your library, because you never know who it is that you are helping, it could be the next Bill Gates, or maybe even Vernon d’Eon. (Yes, you are going to have to do some research to find out who Vernon d’Eon is!)