Tifton Rotary Club member Dr. Larry Branch opened with remarks and then Mike Brumby,  a member of the Tift County Foundation for Educational Excellence, introduced the speaker.

     Steve Lopez, who writes the “Steve Lopez’s America” column for the magazine, said he arrived in Tifton Tuesday.

       “I’ve been going from one school and location to the next.  Monday, I had never heard of Tifton. I woke up where I live near Central Park, caught a cab, flew to Atlanta and then onto to Albany.  I have spent more time in Tift County Schools since I have been here than I did in my own school as a child,” Lopez said.

     Lopez, who was raised in a small town in California, said he enjoys visiting small communities such as Tifton who have “managed to hold on to that sense of place.”

      “In the mix of stories, I am always interested in discovering new places.  A sense of place is something I look for in small towns,” Lopez said. “I just go wherever there is a story and chase it down.”

     Lopez said he usually has to find his way around and makes his own appointments when he arrives in a small town.  Not so in Tifton.

     “When I arrived here, Mike (Brumby) already had an itinerary for us,” Lopez said.

     Lopez sold the idea of a Tifton story to his editor after he received an e-mail from Ed Lightsey, a writer for Georgia Trend Magazine.

     “Ed told me to call Mike.  He told me it (reading program) was a wonderful program.  I told my editor we needed something sweet and honest.  He told me to go to Tifton,” Lopez said.

     Lopez joked that he had sense some apprehension about what he would write about Tifton from locals who had read his last two columns – one about Anna Nicole Smith’s “gold digging” and the other about a  “drive-through strip joint” in another small town.

     But when he asked how many in the room were Time subscribers, only four people raised there hands.

      “I am beginning to doubt this reading thing,” Lopez joked.

     Lopez said he has noticed in his travels how Main Street programs help communities hold on to a sense of place and history.

     “You find in those places a real sense of  community,” Lopez said.

     Lopez has written two novels and is working on the third.  A collection of his columns and essays has also been published, but he said he had not seen the “long list” of approved accelerated reader books to see if any of his books were on the list.

     “The only flaw I see with this program is that I haven’t seen the long list of books you can read for credit.  Mike keeps saying he will show it to me later, but I know my books aren’t on here,” Lopez said.

     Lopez said what Tifton is doing to encourage reading is to be commended.  He found it encouraging that children in Tifton may forego watching television and playing video games and choose to read a book instead.

      “You have something special here with the reading program.  I am going to try to do my part,” Lopez said.