Prescott embraces Little Free Libraries with open arms
A love of reading can be fostered at any age, anytime, and any place. That’s why the mission of Little Free Libraries is to promote literacy and the love of reading by building free book exchanges worldwide and to build a sense of community as we share skills, creativity and wisdom across generations. There are over 36,000 Little Free Library book exchanges around the world, bringing curbside literacy home and sharing millions of books annually. And Prescott embraces Little Free Libraries with open arms all over the community.
A year ago, restaurateur Barry Barbe of El Gato Azul hired local handyman Dean Simmons to build for him a small, anybody-can-use library. That small, blue library was erected in Peppertree Park and is now registered as part of the “Little Free Library” national book exchange movement and has spread like wildfire since. The response to the El Gato Azul library, and a growing number of other such structures around the community, caught Barbe by surprise.
Not only are these libraries a novelty that intrigues his restaurant guests, and tourists, but Barbe appreciates that this is a fun way to promote community literacy. He has customers and local employees who regularly come and trade off books. Most days, at least one or more people are taking a book while someone else is donating one. So the stock has a healthy turn around.
Dean “The Handyman” Simmons not only has three versions of the little free libraries out near his back deck in Prescott, but also has two other library boxes that are to be donations to an animal rescue group and the Prescott community’s first responders. To learn more about the Little Free Libraries movement please visit www.littlefreelibrary.org. For more local Prescott community news, contact Crystal Creek Builders.
Crystal Creek Builders
www.crystalcreekhomes.com
928-445-3200
