Photo courtesy of Orange County Archives, “Orange County Public Library Bookmobile,” ca.1965, via Wikimedia.

I was lucky. Growing up, two local libraries that were just a short drive away. But not all kids have access to that many books.

In recent years, the town of Wellington in Carbon County, Utah has had a tight budget. Coal revenues have been falling, so the county commission has had to scramble to find enough money to continue operating local government services. In order to balance finances, the county commission voted to cut funding for the bookmobile and other programs. If this budget was implemented, the people of Wellington would have had their chances to find and read new books drastically cut.

This horrified one local book lover, 10-year-old October Hamilton, who leapt into action.

“We don’t have a library,” October told KSL reporters. “And the bookmobile is the only book source…