My wife and I recently returned to La Conner after a ten-year absence while she directed the Alternative Program for Neah Bay High and Middle Schools, and I served on the community hospital board. Desperately needing a break from herding cardboard boxes of stuff that appeared to be breeding in our new home, we snuck over to the final sales day at the Library Thrift Store in early July. What a wonderful way to meet new, happy people. They called themselves “Friends of the Library,” and indeed they were that day and have valiantly been for some time.

As they explained, ground will soon be...