This is the time of year when we often think of those we need to thank.  While gratitude should be an intregal part of our lives every day, it is good to look back over a year and reflect on where we are and  who held our hands, cajoled us, encouraged us along, walked with us and , sometimes, pushed us into the present.  At a library as small as Peninsula Community Library, we could not exist without volunteers.  Our paid staff consists of one full-time director and four hard-working part-time staff members.  With an annual circulation of 48,609 items and estimated annual visits of 26,156, PCL is a busy place!  Volunteers shelve books, serve on our audit committee, plan our Mother Daughter Book Club, run our Yarn Arts Club, plan Friends' fundraisers, weed and plant our garden, clean audio-visual discs, read shelves to make sure that everything is in the right place, and donate items for programming as well as the talents that enable us to offer the programs themselves.  One special volunteer comes in every Monday without fail to shelve.  She loves being at the library so much that she actually ASKS if it is okay to go on vacation.  We assure her that her "job" is always safe!  Two retired engineers spent several weeks early in the morning before the library was opened securing and repairing wobbly shelving that had become unsafe.  Another volunteer works with preschool students with her Reading Education Assistance Dog, encouraging early literacy skills.  Our trustees, who are elected to represent the public interest in governing the library, serve without reimbursement.  The children and spouses of staff members are often pulled in as extra hands.  Sometimes, people pulled into helping at a moment's notice, become special heroes.  On my way to a program off site of which I was in charge, a tire on my car went flat in the middle of our beautiful, very rural peninsula.  What to do?  Only one thing to do, run up to the nearby winery and ask, no BEG, to be given a ride to the park where the program will start in ten minutes.  Cool as could be, the vineyard manager said, "No problem.  Wait out front in the portico and I'll come around."  You can imagine my surprise when he drove up in a vintage T-bird convertible with the top down!  Nothing, of course, topped the looks on the faces of the kids and parents at our Lighthouse Park when I drove up in style!  Then there is one of those retired engineers who helped fixed the shelving.   His donations of time and talent well outdate my six and a half year tenure here as director.  He has helped with a temporary move, crafted bookcases, hung signs, done repairs, assembled display units and given lessons on working with tools to the not-so-tool handy director.  The amazing thing is that he has NEVER said no!  So many of our volunteers are like that - they never say no.  I know full well that we could not afford to run the library without them.  Someday, I will have to figure out the value of all that our volunteers do, although I am absoulutely sure that their gifts are priceless.  For all of those people, who have become my friends and surrogate family, I AM grateful!