By Laura Tamayo
In the front of what may seem to be a typical, suburban Bloomingdale home, an amazing community project has recently bloomed. Melanie Martin and her family decided to start up a Little Free Library in their own front yard, driven by their love for reading and desire to contribute to their environment.
Little Free Library is an organization that has built over 100,000 small libraries in over 100 countries, helping those of all backgrounds get access to books and education.
This sort of project has been close to Martin’s heart for a while and being able to establish her very own library was extremely meaningful to both her and her family.
“I’ve been intrigued by Little Free Library boxes for several years now and have visited many around the country since we travel and move often,” explained Martin.
The project works in a very generous way, allowing for any person to take a book from the mini library without any obligation to give one back.
Despite this, Martin highly encourages leaving a book behind as this is one of her favorite parts of the entire project.
“It is fun to see what books are left in place of the ones taken,” said Martin.
One may think that some people would be too greedy and take too many or even all the available books, but Martin highlighted that the community has been very generous and with their substantial donations, she has two bookcases full of inventory to stock the library shelves.
To take a book, the participant must drive by Martin’s home in the Windsor Woods neighborhood of Bloomingdale and simply choose which book from the library they want.
The Little Free Library opened on July 3 and it has shown to be a very successful project. Martin detailed that since the opening, she has seen many people enjoying the box and has had to restock the bookshelves several times.
This library will be open indefinitely and to get more information, you can find the Facebook or Instagram @LFLBloomingdale. Additionally, to understand the Little Free Library’s mission more in depth, go to littlefreelibrary.org.
