Earlier this year I joined the Johnson County Library Foundation Board, and I’ve been meaning to write about it because it feels like more than just a volunteer commitment. It feels like a full-circle moment.

I grew up in a small town in Kansas where the library was one of those places that just made the world feel bigger. I remember checking out books about gray wolves, reading about Helen Keller and Ryan White, and losing entire afternoons in stories I never would have found on my own. My elementary school library and my hometown public library shaped who I am, not in a dramatic way, but in the quiet, cumulative way that good books do. They made me more curious, more empathetic, more open to people whose lives looked nothing like mine.

When I had my daughter and started taking her to the Lenexa branch of Johnson County Library, I got to watch that same thing happen in real time. Watching her choose her books and then run straight to the puppet theater, I genuinely felt like I had come full circle. The library was doing for her what it had done for me.

So when I learned about the Foundation and what it does to support Johnson County Library’s programs and resources, it wasn’t a hard decision. It was one of those rare opportunities where your professional life and your personal life point in the same direction.

In my practice, I spend a lot of time helping people think about the future, protecting what they’ve built, making things easier for the people they love, and planning ahead so that hard moments don’t become harder ones. The Library Foundation’s work fits that same instinct. Libraries give people tools. They lower barriers. They make knowledge accessible to anyone who walks through the door, regardless of what they can afford or where they started.

I’m excited to learn more about everything Johnson County Library offers and to help share that with my community. If you’re not already familiar with the Foundation and the work they do, I’d encourage you to take a look. They’re doing good work for a place that matters.

— Cassie Pfannenstiel, Attorney & Owner, Bloom Legal Advisors  |  Lenexa, KS