To continue to promote reading among island children on Ambergris Caye, a third Little Free library was installed in the Boca del Rio Area in San Pedro Town on Wednesday, July 24th. The Little Free libraries operate under the honor system that you take a book and leave a book, so the content of the libraries constantly change.
This new Little Free Library, complete with 50 books, was donated by Beth Mersch. Mother of island resident Alyssa Esquival, Mersch gifted the library in honor of her three grandchildren who are Belizean/American and live on the island. The new library is located one block away from Casa Pan Dulce in the Boca Del Rio Area, towards the lagoon side, and was built by Ronny Perez and painted by Melody Sanchez Wolfe from Belizean Melody Art Gallery.
This makes the third Little Free Library installed by Belize Bookworms, the team in charge of the Little Free Libraries in San Pedro Town. The first is located in the DFC Area and the second is in the San Mateo Area. Jeanna Barrett of Belize Bookworms told The San Pedro Sun that since the installment of these Little Free Libraries across the island, many children have been excited about reading and have been using it wisely. For now, the team will stop at this third library to see how many books it takes to maintain them on the island. If in the future they decide to install a fourth library, it will be in the San Pedrito Area.
Belize Bookworms is accepting both children and adult books. There are many ways to donate, such as dropping them off at Belizean Melody 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 also 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 specific types of books to donate, and other donation details. You can also just drop off your donation at any of the two libraries. 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].
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.
Share
Read more
