All community members welcome for a presentation, Q&a and book signing

about this region’s heritage.

“One of the reasons that we have the event at our college here as well as in the community is it gives our students time to come out during their class day and learn things without having to leave campus,” said Susan Lauer, manager of operations, NAU-YUMA.

Faculty from NAU-YUMA and AWC in a variety of fields are encouraged to build One Book Yuma events into their curriculum by means of assignments and/or extra credit.

Brave the Wild River is the perfect intersection between a grand, against-allodds adventure and a historical deep dive into this region’s past. The goals of Sevigny’s visit are to inspire students never to shy away from trying something new while recognizing the historical impact of this region’s heritage.

“One of the great things about this book and Melissa’s storytelling is that she talks about [not] letting anybody say you cannot do anything,” said Aimee Quinn, NAU-YUMA Campus Librarian. “Don’t let the naysayers put you down because there’s nothing you can’t do. That’s a great message I think everybody needs to hear.”

Both the public library and academic libraries have audiobook, ebook and print versions of Brave the Wild River in order to provide the community with every avenue to get into reading.

The strong partnership between Yuma’s public library and community colleges is paramount in offering the community and its students the means to learn in any way they feel comfortable.

“The Public Library loves to do partnerships with community organizations and other stakeholders in the community,” Calderon said. “This event is a really great opportunity to partner up with the community colleges to be able to push forward our efforts for literacy and also give all members of the community a chance to be able to learn something new.”