a Little Free Library

Back in the fall, I heard about a Kickstarter campaign launched by a local woman hoping to put a couple of Little Free Libraries in our area. The campaign took on a life of its own as the goal was surpassed and totaled more than $10k in only 2 weeks. The woman who launched the campaign decided to build as many as she could, more than 20 at last count, and put them all over our region of NC.

Almost as soon as I heard about the project, I sent a message to the Little Free Libraries NC (a page started to keep folks informed on the progress of the campaign) group on Facebook asking how I could help. I volunteered to help paint, along with my kids, or host a Little Free Library.

Paulie, Elizabeth, and Finn painted our Little Free Library when it arrived this past weekend. They decided on solid backgrounds with dripping-paint stripes for the design. And once the post hole was ready, she was set into place.

The Little Free Libraries NC group received more than just monetary donations, but many book donations as well, and this weekend, when our Little Free Library was installed, it also came stocked with the generosity of our local community.

This project thrilled our kids. In addition to helping get the Library into place, they have been constantly checking to see if any books have been claimed or returned, checking for leakage after our rains yesterday (none was detected), and thinking about which of their own beloved books they'd like to share with the community.

If you are interested in learning more about the Little Free Library project, you can find information at LittleFreeLibary.org. They have instructions for building your own Library, a map for locating a library near you, and other ways to support the Little Free Library program. The map takes time to update, which means it might be a few months before our Little Free Library sees much traffic other than our own little neighborhood (or before local folks can find the 9 that have been added to our area just this month). I can't wait to see how this project unfolds for us over the coming years, and I'm elated that we are able to be a part of this movement of sharing some of our favorite stories with the community around us.