GIVING in Coral Gables, Fla.

From the first customer – who lined up a full 17 hours before President Clinton was scheduled to arrived at Books & Books in Coral Gables, Fla. on September 6 – to the last of the more than 1,000 people who braved the late summer sun, we saw the impact of the president’s message in GIVING.

GIVING connects with people, connects at the very core of what matters to them, because the book is an extension of President Clinton’s overall approach. One after another, hundreds upon hundreds, stepped up to the president and made that sincere connection. He engaged each person as if he’d known him or her since childhood, and they shared stories of giving, of connecting with their neighbors, of engaging with their communities.

Among the first people in line was Harry Horgan, founder of Shake-A-Leg Miami, which helps children and adults with physical, developmental, and economic challenges through its water sports community center and newly chartered school. “We don’t believe in walls; we believe in water,” as the Shake-A-Leg Miami mission proclaims. Shake-A-Leg uses Biscayne Bay as its classroom and focuses on experiential learning with sailing and water sports. Harry, who himself uses a wheelchair, has created a network of giving through large corporations, including Publix supermarkets, Royal Caribbean and American Airlines, and individuals. People magazine named Harry one of its Heroes Among Us.

Also among the first visitors was Rudy Crew, and the president greeted the superintendent of Miami-Dade Public Schools with a hug. Dr. Crew, who guides the nation’s fourth-largest public school system, also has a new book about the interconnectedness of our communities. In Only Connect, Dr. Crew explains that our education system can only improve if it is the focus of our business community and all of our citizens.

Other sights and sounds from the line that wrapped around three city streets and serpentined through our store:

Eight-year-old Dylan Silver asked the president to sign his Current Events homework sheet. The president signed but told Dylan he had to finish the assignment, too.

A little girl in her cadet uniform came with her school principal to meet President Clinton, but she was too awestruck to respond to the president’s questions.

Heidi Tandy, an attorney and mother from Miami Beach, told President Clinton this was her first chance to see him since he spoke at the University of Pennsylvania in 1992. The president responded immediately with “I remember that speech. It was on Earth Day,” and proceeded to recount the speech, its importance, and the importance of our environment. In that moment, he transported Heidi and himself back 15 years.

The most frequent comments were “I’m from Colombia,” (our store is across the street from the Colombian Consulate) and “great shoes” (the president wore two-tone white-and-tan wing tips given to him by actor James Caan). Each “I’m from Colombia” brought a broad smile to the former president’s face, as he showed off the woven bracelet given to him there and discussed the Giving chapter about Colombia.

And all of them, from the president’s new Colombian friends to the 90-year-old lady who asked the president to dance, walked away with beaming smiles on their faces, personal encounters with the president in their memories, and giving in their hearts.