In frigid temperatures on Saturday, January 7, 2017 Collinsville Community Unit School District #10 cut the ribbon on the first Little Free Library installed in partnership with The Collinsville Area Recreation District.
Little Free Library is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to building communities through the sharing of books. The “Take a Book. Share a book. Leave a Book.” philosophy encourages children to take a book they find interesting and return it or another book they have read to a special Little Free Library box.
The first Collinsville community box is located at the CARD office at 10 Gateway Drive adjacent to Splash City Water Park. Additional boxes are planned or installed at other CARD sites: Willoughby Farm and Woodland Park in Collinsville and Pleasant Ridge Park in Maryville.
The Collinsville area program is coordinated through CUSD 10 by Title 1 Director Sarah Gray. CARD graciously offered to partner with the school district to help install and maintain the boxes in parks around the community.
If the first Little Free Library boxes are well-received, other locations will be chosen. The initial supply of books was purchased with literacy grant money and collected from Unit 10 staff. Twin Echo and Summit Elementary Schools also have free lending library boxes.
For more information about the Little Free Libraries program in Collinsville, contact Sarah Gray at [email protected].