Human kindness: I kept thinking about what Abe had said. Over and over again while I was in Fairview, I saw people reaching out to one another, offering help without thought, always with a smile. I marvelled at that. And they laughed together about everything, especially themselves.

On Sunday afternoon, Dave picked me up at the hotel to take me to Grande Prairie, an hour's drive south of Fairview. The snowplows had been through, the highways were fairly dear and there were fewer chip trucks on the road at this time of day. I asked Dave to tell me more about why he has chosen to stay in the North.

"I really like the job I'm doing but I really like the people, too. Fairview is a friendly and comfortable place to be. I'm sure it's like most small towns. The people who choose to stay in the Peace Country seem to share a sense of 'pride of town' and that makes the communities friendly and productive. And then again, because you have to be just a little bit crazy to live in the North, there's always the possibility that we're still here because no one else will have us!"

On Monday morning I drove to downtown Grande Prairie and found an older building just off the main street where The Reading Network is housed. The building is ordinary and unassuming; I was surprised to discover all the activity going on inside.

WENDA HOUSEGO started with The Reading Network 4 years ago. There were 16 students then; there are now 275. Wenda is a quiet-spoken but very capable woman who is a dear thinker with strong vision for the future. When I commented on how much her program had grown Wenda laughed and said, "People rarely leave! We try really hard to meet the individual needs of the students. Once they're settled into a program that's suited to them they usually stay."

I had noticed a wonderful mixture of people coming and going when I came into the building - handicapped students, instructors, ESL students and tutors. Everyone said hello to each other and it was hard to tell which people belonged to which programs. "All the programs we offer are housed under one roof," Wenda explained. "Everyone shares the library and whatever resources we have and the staff all work together to keep things running smoothly."

Wenda described the different programs to me and how they had come about. "I did a needs assessment when I first started and I could see pretty quickly that there were a lot of people who weren't being served by the present set-up. People like home-bound moms, seniors, special needs students, young men, Native students, ESL students who couldn't attend classrooms and people from the County. Everybody kept telling me, 'You can't have programs for all those people' but I did my best to find funding for some specific programs. 50 now we have a program for special needs students, an outreach program for ESL students, the volunteer tutor program and small classroom settings for E5L and ABE students. We're also working on funding for a program just for seniors and we've been working with the Native Friendship Centre to do a joint project with them for Native students."

"I don't believe in turning people away. We try to rake the needs of every student into consideration. If someone doesn't fit into an existing program we still try to find a place for them. I never say no to anybody and somehow the students have all managed to fit in."

Wenda has always had great plans for The Reading Network. In the process of trying to accomplish what others thought was impossible Wenda "made herself an expert". "I did a tremendous amount of reading," she told me. "I still read a lot. I talked to a lot of different people (Wenda is currently the Vice-President of the AAAL), I listened to what was happening in the field and I kept trying to find the resources to make think happen. But I also had a lot of really good people working with me."