Who Loves Ya, Chatham? Launch Of ‘Chatham: A Cape Cod Village’ Draws Admirers

 With apologies to the other communities covered by The Chronicle, people really love Chatham.

 That was evident last Thursday at a book launch event for “Chatham: A Cape Cod Village,” Kim Roderiques’ coffee table book of photos. Proceeds from the book and the sold-out event benefit WE CAN, the Harwich Port-based organization that helps women experiencing major life transitions.

 Author and journalist Hank Phillippi Ryan moderated a panel that included Roderiques, business owner Sandy Wycoff, Atwood House Museum Director Kevin Wright and authors Anne D. LeClaire and Bernard Cornwell; the latter three contributed essays to the book, and Wycoff underwrote the cost of production so that all sales could go to WE CAN.

 “Each of you is in a mutual admiration society with Chatham,” Ryan told the audience, which included the gamut of Chatham folks: town officials, year-round residents, summer residents and visitors. She called Roderiques a “treasure” whose photos capture both the natural beauty of the town and the sense of community that people love so much about Chatham.

 “If you could capture joy, it would be in Kim’s book of photographs of Chatham,” Ryan said.

 Roderiques recalled standing in her driveway and calling Wycoff. “I have an idea,” she said, “and I could hear the ‘uhhh.’” When she told Wycoff of her vision to make an impact by raising money for WE CAN, “she said, yeah, OK.” Nearly $10,000 was raised for WE CAN from sponsorships and late Thursday’s event, “and that doesn’t include sales of the book,” Roderiques said.

 The book “seemed like a dream forever,” she said, but required a considerable amount of work to winnow down her photographs into the best and most representational of Chatham. “It’s a lot more than just taking some photographs and putting them in a book.”

 Asked by Ryan about her process for taking and choosing photos, Roderiques said she had no plan, that when she sees something that stirs a passion in her, she photographs it. When she gets just the right photo, “there’s an excitement. I just want to burst out of my skin.”

 LeClaire called the book “stunning” and said it “shows the soul of the town.” While the natural beauty of the town is “astounding” and often is what draws people here, what keeps people here is that they feel connected to the community, she said.

 “There’s the town of Chatham and then there’s the community, and the community is what I feel passion for,” she said. People who live or visit in Chatham become invested in the town, she added.

 “If you don’t believe people here love Chatham, read the letters to the editor page in The Chronicle,” she said.

 Cornwell, who was born and grew up in London, discovered Chatham about 40 years ago.

 “When we fly back at the end of a trip, I just can’t wait to see Chatham again, because it’s home,” he said.

 The author brought the evening to a conclusion by reciting the final lines of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” which he’d spoken as Prospero in the Cape Cod Shakespeare Festival in Chatham’s production of the play this summer.

 “We are such stuff as dreams are made on,” he said, “and our little life is rounded with a sleep.”

 “This book that Kim has created,” Ryan added, “has captured our dreams. This book is the stuff that dreams are made of.”