'Little Free Library' Opens In Memory Of Beloved Fierke Student

OAK FOREST, IL -- "The Little Free Library" is the newest addition at the Fierke Education Center in Oak Forest. It was unveiled this week in memory of Daniel Joost, a beloved former student who died in 2016.

Free libraries have been popping up throughout the area at schools, including at least one other in Community Consolidated School District 146. The idea to have a library where people can take out books for free, return them and donate new books was something already in the works at Fierke, as was a plan to honor Joost in some way.

Fierke Principal Bret Pignatiello said it "just so happened to work out" that Joost loved reading and former Fierke student Peter Akai (whose now at Central Middle School) wanted to do something like this for his Eagle Scout Service Project.

The result is the Daniel Joost Free Library, which was unveiled right outside the school's main entrance on Monday.

"It's painted to look like the building, matches the decor and scenery," said Pignatiello, the first-year Fierke principal who referred to himself as the "middle man" in the process of making the library a possibility. Pignatiello credits the Akai family and PTA for making a majority of the arrangements to make it a possibility.

"They took it over and ran with it," Pignatiello said.

The Akai family never knew Joost, but was more than happy to be a part of the school's way to remember him.

"I thought it was pretty awesome," Pignatiello said. "We started talking about it at the beginning of the school year, but it wasn't until the first of the year when we really got down to planning it. Once we got down to the nitty gritty with putting numbers together and ideas to paper, away it went."

Pignatiello says the library is not just for use by Fierke students. Anyone in the community can take part by taking out a book and reading it before returning it when they'd like. He says the school will closely monitor the library to ensure new donations are appropriate and accounted for.

There's also a bench located next to the free library so people can sit down and read a book for a little while before deciding whether they'd like to check it out or not.

Photos courtesy of School District 146