Schools
Little Kids Make Big Difference With Little Free Libraries
Among the service projects under way at Troy Union Elementary School is a collaborative effort to put Little Free Libraries all over Troy.
TROY, MI – Troy residents will soon see the result of some of the the city’s youngest citizens’ efforts to spread the joy of reading to their neighbors.
On Friday, the second-grade class at Troy Union Elementary School will be painting and putting the finishing touches on the Little Free Libraries they built to be placed around the city.
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The project is one several service projects under way at Troy Union, where students and staff at every grade level committed to “giving back” projects under the school’s Leader in Me program.
Parent volunteers helped cut the wood frames, and then students worked alongside them to assemble the miniature libraries, which are then decorated.
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The Leader in Me program helps build leadership in a variety of ways, including bringing other groups into the partnership, according to second-grade teacher Susan Zemmer.
Other service projects underway this year at Troy Union include raising money for Calen4Kids, the Michigan Humane Society, Children’s Cancer Research, Sole Hope and Gleaners Community Food Bank. Each grade will work on one of the projects.
The Troy Parks and Recreation Department is “thrilled with the idea” of the decorative library boxes, Zemmer said in a news release, and the Friends of the Troy Public has committed to keeping the Little Free Libraries stocked with books.
“It is an amazingly collaborative effort,” she said. “Our kids are super excited that they will get to see their boxes out in Troy.”
The finished Little Free Libraries will be unveiled at a school-wide assembly on March 21. Representatives from the Troy Public Library and Troy Parks and Recreation are expected to attend.
The first Little Free Library was built in 2009 in Hudson, WI, by Tod Bol. He wanted to honor his late mother, a school teacher and avid reader, and came up with an idea he hoped would instill in others her passion for books and reading: A small library filled with books to be shared with friends, neighbors or passersby.
The idea behind the Little Free Library is to “take a book and leave a book,” with no library card involved.
» Patch file photo by Beth Dalbey
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