Another Little Free library was installed in the San Mateo Area in San Pedro Town on Saturday, May 11th. The aim of the Little Free Libraries around town is to promote reading to island children, who can, in turn, share their favorite books with their community. It operates under the honor system that you take a book and leave a book, so the content of the library boxes constantly changes.
The second Little Free Library was built by local Belizean carpenters Jacob and Romaldo and was commissioned by David Threets with support from his friend Jennie Schetnan. They had it built and then contacted Belize Bookworms (team in charge of the Little Free Libraries in San Pedro Town) to proceed with their donation. This second Little Free Library is located around the corner from Holy Cross Anglican School, just in front of the Lopez Store in the San Mateo Area.
Belize Bookworms already have a third Little Free Library, which has been donated by Beth Mersch, mother of island resident Alyssa Esquivel. Mersch has donated the price of the library and 50 books in the name of her grandchildren who live on the island. The third Little Free Library is expected to be installed at Boca Del Rio Area. For now, the team will stop at three Little Free Libraries to see how many books it takes to maintain them on the island. If a fourth library is installed, it will be in the San Pedrito Area.
The Little Free Library mission started in 2009 when one man in Wisconsin, USA, built a little book shelter in his yard for the neighborhood children. Now, ten years later, Little Free Libraries is an officially incorporated nonprofit in the USA, with over 75,000 tiny libraries in 88 countries worldwide, including Belize. In October 2018, Tanya McNab from McNab Visual Strategies and Kim Simplis Barrow from Special Envoy for Women and Children Belize, in partnership with the Ministry of Education, installed the first one out of the nine on the mainland, at St. John’s Cathedral in Belize City.
Belize Bookworms is accepting both children and adult books. There are many ways to donate, such as dropping them off at Belizean Melody’s Art Studio at the end of Barrier Reef Street, shipping used or new books to Belize Freight address on their website at https://belizefreight.com/. Belize Freight has graciously offered to ship the books free of cost. Many books cost $1 in thrift stores across the world, so it doesn’t need to cost a lot to donate. You can also visit http://belizebookworms/donate to find out their shipping address, an Amazon book wish list has also been created, with specifics the types of books to donate, and other donation details. You can also just drop off your donation at any of the two libraries. The first Little Free Library is located in the DFC Area. To keep up with the good work, Belize Bookworms is doing in San Pedro Town you can follow them on Facebook and Instagram. For further information, you can also email them at [email protected].
