DOWAGIAC — Dowagiac is closing the book on one of its most popular spring event series.

After the conclusion of the 2018 One Story season, the fifth season in the program’s history, the organizing committee announced that the program would no longer continue due to a loss of key committee members.

“When we lost those connections, we took a look at what we were doing and realized that maybe it was time we moved on to something else,” said Steve Arseneau, committee member with the Dowagiac Area History Museum. “It’s not so much that the program couldn’t continue without those members, it’s more that we felt it was the right time in our lives [to end the program].”

The One Story program was a collaborative program between many Dowagiac organizations that aimed to improve literacy and community connection by organizing a number of spring events surrounding the theme of a specific book. The 2018 season’s books were Mitch Albom’s “Tuesdays with Morrie” and N.L. Sharp’s “Effie’s Image.” The overall theme for the 2018 program was “connecting generations.”

Members of the One Story committee said ending the program is not a sad event. Instead, the committee is celebrating everything the One Story program has accomplished over the last five years, said Kristie Bussler, committee member with the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians.

When the committee first started the program, its goals were simple. The One Story program was meant to promote literacy and bring community organizations together on one project.

“We accomplished everything and more than what we put on our goal list,” said committee member with the city manager’s office.

“We wanted to do something that would bring the community together. [Dowagiac organizations] were all doing these really cool things separately, so we talked about doing things together and collaboratively,” Bussler chimed in. “We wanted to get books in people’s hands and get them reading and talking about those books.”

Now, Bussler said the committee has seen the One Story program grow bigger and more important to the community than they could have imagined when the program first began.

“We are going out on a high note,” she said. “[The program] has really been something great that we enjoyed working on.”

The final 2018 One Story season was a success and serves as a fitting send off for the program, according to the organizing committee.

“The book for this year was “Tuesdays with Morrie,” and at the end of the book, Morrie dies and some people see that as the end,” Bussler said. “To me, that’s a metaphor for One Story. Some may see this as an ending, but that is not the way it feels. We are just moving into something new. We don’t know what that is yet, but it is a hopeful thing.”

Though the One Story program is ending, the organizations that worked together on the program will still collaborate on projects together, Bussler said.

“Everyone of us has said, ‘let’s make sure to keep doing cool things,’ and we want to stick to that,” she said. “There are still going to be great, enriching events in our community.”