Brattleboro Rotary Club's 2017 Literacy Project

When the editors at Reader's Digest made a list of the "50 Surprising Reasons We Love America" for their July 2013 cover story, they placed Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi at No. 50, Bill Gates at No. 25, and at No. 11, sandwiched between sliced bread and tumbleweeds, was Little Free Library, a homespun-tribute-turned-international-phenomenon started by Rotary member Todd Bol.

 

 

People in 55 countries have installed more than 16,000 Lilliputian lending libraries, run on the premise of "take a book, return a book," since Bol built his first in 2009 in memory of his mother, a teacher who loved to read. Called an "international movement" by the New York Times and a "global sensation" by the Huffington Post, the libraries have garnered coverage from media outlets including Japanese public television and French and Italian fashion magazines.
 

Participation is simple: Mount a wooden box (many of them look like birdhouses) on a post in front of your home, workplace, or school. Fill it with books. Delight as neighbors stop by to browse your selections or leave books of their own.

A single, well-placed Little Free Library can have a real impact upon its neighborhood. What’s more, it can inspire others to establish their own Little Libraries.

The impact of Little Free Library book exchanges increases as more are set up and they become woven into the fabric of the community. By adding your corporate logo to the outside of each Library, an organization will increase its visibility within a community while making a meaningful contribution to book access—essential to reading readiness and later literacy—by sponsoring multiple Libraries.

CONCEPT:

Brattleboro Rotary Club members sponsor the purchase of materials to build 10 libraries
(10 @ $60 = $600)
Brattleboro Rotary Club community service project team (5-10) completes building of 10 libraries.
Each library will have a club logo.
Ten local artists are each given one library to paint with
The ten libraries are auctioned, with the proceeds going to Friends of Brooks Memorial Library,
 
TEAM:
Brattleboro Rotary Club: Joe Little
Arts Council of Windham County: Greg Worden
Friends of Brattleboro Library: Joyce Marcel