Why do you arrange author visits?

So I've told this story so many times, it almost seems apocryphal.  When I was a little girl, 1st or 2nd grade at Sumpter, my class was ushered into the library at school to hear an author speak.  He was a young (seemingly to me at the time, tall), with a head full of curly hair.  I must have loved listening to him speak, because I still remember him telling a story about arguing with his publishers about whether 'inched across the room' was still appropriate now that the metric system was adopted in Canada, or whether 'centimetered across the room was the current usage'.  I doubt I understood what that was about, but I collected his books after that (sadly at the time, I had no book to be signed by him, my (possibly flawed) recollection is that we in my grade were included in this experience at the last minute).  I owned many books as a girl:  The Bruno & Boots Series, No Coins Please, I Want to Go Home, Who is Bugs Potter.    

I don't know what happened to any of those books, but even as an adult I would pick up his newer books, both children's and Young Adult titles.

When I started volunteering for the Scholastic Book Fair at Schirle, our wonderful Librarian arranged a visit for popular children's author Roland Smith to take place during my spring fair.  I was thrilled to hear this news, told that story to her, and worked to help take some of the fundraising burden off the library.

The kids responded to this visit with enthusiasm I hadn't imagined.  They lined up each book fair shift desperately trying to get more titles from the author.  I was sold on author visits even more than I had been!
Since then, I have booked or helped facilitate visits from:
Suzane Selfors

Stephanie Bodeen

Deborah Hopkinson

Robert. D. SanSouci

Which brings me to this year:
Gordon Korman

I had always had a goal of bringing him to my kids' school.  However, it is expensive, and he lives far away.  Due to the unprecedented success of a new fundraiser last year, I knew it was time to ask for the funding!

Many of the teachers (who were as excited as me) wanted to know:  how did you get him?  The answer:  I asked for the money and asked him.  It was more work than that, and I needed to find another school, as he wanted a 2 school commitment (he was already headed to LA for two days of this week).  Easy:  I asked my first choice school, Roland's (then future) middle school.  Even though it was a much bigger financial commitment for them (percentage-wise) they took a deep breath and said yes!

It was quite a bit of work to make it happen (I've never had an author come from farther, and I've never been point person when we were sharing an author with another school).  But it was wonderful.  The kids responded so well to his presentations, they laughed, and were generally very enthusiastic later.

Gordon Korman was so kind to me, and gracious to everyone he met.  I think it must be hard to through your lot in with complete strangers, but he is a champ.

Wesley and I had a chance to show him around downtown a little, and we enjoyed getting to know him.

Roland meeting the author, getting his books signed.

Crossler's day was pretty chill, but Schirle was a whirlwind of book signing, presentations, faculty luncheons, special guests from the district and Scholastic, and kindergarten classroom visits.

Some teachers were pretty excited!

I was so pleased it went off without a major hitch, and got a picture with the author before he left.

Major life goal:  Check!  Now I can't wait to book next year's author!