Lunch program features local world travelers

By Susan Braunstein
Programming Library Associate

World travelers Bruce Junek and Tass Thacker will be featured at the library’s Lunch & Learn on April 21 at noon. Junek and Thacker, who live in Rapid City, have created a company called Images of the World to share the story of their adventures bicycling and exploring the world.

Images of the World include seven different educational slide show programs describing their bicycling and traveling adventures through 52 countries over the last 34 years. The one planned at the library is called,”Life Journeys,” an introspective and personal account of their travels and unique lifestyle featuring photographs from their adventures. 

The first trip they made in 1984 was a two year bicycling and hiking adventure around the world. This experience is presented in their show, “World Bicycle Tour,” and described in their book, “The Road of Dreams,” written by Junek with photographs by Thacker. Another of their programs is entitled, “Andes to the Amazon,” where they mountain biked through the Andes and biked and canoed into the Amazon basin. They also have a book published on this journey.

Other programs include, “Rainforests and Maya Ruins,” which covers 10 different trips through Mexico and Central America with bicycling from Costa Rica to Mexico, hiking through a variety of rainforests plus many other glimpses into local culture and creatures; “Volcanoes of the World,” features volcanoes in Africa, Asia, North America, Central and South America; and “African Safari,” where they spent 34 days in 11 national parks photographing birds and animals. To contact them for booking shows or to view descriptions of the programs check out www.imagesoftheworld.com.

The Lunch & Learn event is held on the third Wednesday of the month from noon to 1 p.m. The Friends of the Library sponsor the event and if you are interested in signing up for a free lunch, call the library by April 19 at noon. Everyone is welcome to attend, with or without the lunch.

This library program was made possible by the South Dakota Humanities Council, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Next month’s Lunch & Learn brings the return of Cathie Draine and this year Doug Hesnard will also participate in the presentation on May 19 at noon. They will speak about using native and native adapted plants in the garden. Draine will discuss soil and site needs and Doug will talk about designing a garden of native plants.  Those attending will receive a Great Plants Release for the year 2010, a perennial Liatris microcephala, “White Sprite” liatris.

For more details on library programs, in particular all of the National Library Week events check the library website, www.rapidcitylibrary.org. Highlights include a Cultural Day event on Sunday, April 11, a special guest, Kristi Palmer from the National Guard at the Family Story Time, April 13, a book discussion of the One Book South Dakota book, “What is the What?,” by Dave Eggers on April 15, and a Poet’s Coffeehouse on April 16.