Africa Library Project Book Drive Connects Steamboat Little Free Library With Larger World

AfricaBooks

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The Steamboat Little Free Library, located at the front door of the Griffin Fire Department Headquarters, is part of a worldwide network of community sharing libraries. No less than the Wall Street Journal has declared, “Little Free Library is a Global Sensation!” Our Little Free Library is charter number 6039. The mission of the global Little Free Library movement 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.” One way of continuing this mission is the Africa Library Project. Bruce Conklin, a resident in northeast Olympia, is reaching out to residents of the Steamboat community to help with a regional book drive for the Africa Library Project.

Conklin is specifically collecting children’s books (pre-k through 8th grade) to create a library in Sierra Leone, Africa. “The non-profit sponsor is African Book Project but I have to collect 1,000 books and $500 to cover
shipping,” writes Conklin.

Would you like to donate new or gently used books, for Bruce Conklin’s drive to create a library in Sierra Leone? You may drop off your books at 2605 18th Avenue NE, Olympia, 98506. For more information, contact Bruce Conklin at (360) 250-6620 or by email at conklinbruce@hotmail.com.

Thanks for your support of the Africa Library Project. And come by the Steamboat Little Free Library sometime, and “Take a Book, Return a Book.”

Fall Book Sale October 19 to Benefit Steamboat Little Free Library


The Steamboat Little Free Library will soon be installed near the front door of the Griffin Fire Department Headquarters. This library was purchased with generous contibutions from the community and the Friends of the Olympia Library. Click here to read our prior articles about the Steamboat Little Free Library. You are invited to the Fall Book Sale on Saturday, October 19 at the Griffin Fire Department. Proceeds from the sale will benefit the Steamboat Little Free Library. This is a fine opportunity to exchange some of the books in your home for ones you haven’t yet read and benefit our community’s new, book-sharing Little Free Library, at the same time.
 
Fall Book Sale
Satuday, October 19
10 AM to 2 PM
Griffin Fire Department
 
Do you have books to donate to the book sale? Organizers of the Fall Book Sale will be accepting book donations at the Griffin Fire Department on Friday, October 18 from 6 PM to 8 PM.
 
Donate your used books on Friday, then join us for light refreshments, conversation among neighbors, and book browsing on Saturday.
 
The Fall Book Sale is a Griffin Neighborhood Association community event for the benefit of the Steamboat Little Free Library.
  
 

Local Residents Close to Goal of Installing a Little Free Library

The library is 31″ high with a depth and
width of 15″ and holds 30 or more books.

As many of you may know, local resident Missy Watts and others have been working to raise money for a Little Free Library for our Steamboat neighborhood for about five months now. Thanks to a recent generous contribution from the Friends of the Olympia Library, this group is within about $250 of their $750 goal for the purchase and installation of the Little Free Library.

Click here to read our previous piece about the Little Free Library, which includes links to a registry of little free libraries across the globe.

The Fire Commissioners have generously agreed to allow the Library to be installed on the property of the Griffin Fire Department Headquarters. And organizers have begun to receive offers of book donations.

Contributions of any amount will help and can be made online with a secure transaction through PayPal, using your credit card. These are not tax-deductible donations (there is no officially-recognized non-profit organization set up for our local Little Free Library). Plus donations are subject to normal PayPal fees of 2.9% + 30¢ (for example, if you contribute $10, the Little Free Library will receive $9.41).

The Friends of the Olympia
Library donated cash and a
copy of this book.

If everyone reading this article would donate a dollar or two the library can be purchased and installed. The goal is to have the library installed at the fire station by the time of the Griffin Neighborhood picnic at Prosperity  Grange on July 28th.

Please consider making a contribution of any amount and click here to learn more about our Little Free Library.

Local Residents Working to Install a Little Free Library

Little Free Libraries come in lots of shapes and sizes.

What is a “Little Free Library”? In some parts of the world, it’s a movement to promote literacy and the love of reading. In practical terms, though, it’s a box, sheltered from the weather but open to the public, from which people can take or leave books. Free books. Folks are welcome to come anytime and peruse the books in the Little Free Library. They can take a book, they can leave a book.

Here on the Steamboat Peninsula, a few local residents have approached the Griffin Fire Department with a request to allow a Little Free Library to be placed at the Fire Department’s Headquarters. We hope to learn soon that the Fire Commissioners have approved a location. What we need now is the library itself. And some books to seed the library.

Organizers of this Little Free Library are seeking financial donations from our community to purchase the library box and the materials to mount it at the Fire Department HQ. Libraries of several different sizes are available and the size purchased for us would depend upon the amount of the contributions received. Contributions can be made online with a secure transaction through PayPal, using your credit card. Local resident Missy Watts is taking these donations to purchase the library box, since this is not a project of the Griffin Neighborhood Association. These are not tax-deductible donations (there is no officially-recognized non-profit organization set up for our local Little Free Library). Plus donations are subject to normal PayPal fees of 2.9% + 30¢ (for example, if you contribute $10, the Little Free Library will receive $9.41).

Once the library box is purchased, the fun part begins. What books would you like to recommend for the Little Free Library? Click here to leave your comments.
Are you interested in supporting installing a Little Free Library in our community, either by making a donation to purchase the box and the materials to mount it, or by donating a book or two?

Click here to learn more about the Little Free Library movement.