Cindy Harrison makes things happen. She grew up in Massachusetts in a family that was involved in the arts, music, theater, books and the outdoors. At Kalamazoo College in Michigan, she studied international literature and world culture and met her husband, David Harrison. They both went on to study at Fourah Bay College in Sierra Leone, started a family, and in 1986, came to Bainbridge Island.
Cindy joined the Bainbridge Public Library in 1990. As branch manager, she oversaw its expansion and renovation, which included the incorporation of works of art by local artists, a testament to the importance art holds in our community.
She expanded the population served by the Library by adding new media and technological tools and by creating programs that appealed to every age and interest group on the Island. Young people, teens, seniors, theater lovers, opera aficionados, genealogy researchers—all had a home there. Even shy kids had a program in which they could read aloud to empathetic dogs!
In 2006, the New York Times awarded Cindy its Librarian of the Year Award for the many ways in which she went far beyond her job description, serving as an inspiring practitioner of the humanities, a builder of community and, without doubt, an Island Treasure.
Since her “retirement,” she’s kept busy volunteering at the Bainbridge Public Library, the Bloedel Reserve, and the Japanese American Exclusion Memorial.