by Melanie Jongsma
CALUMET CITY, Ill. (July 12, 2020) – On a pleasant Friday afternoon, July 10, the Lions Club of Calumet City gathered in Pulaski Park to celebrate the installation of a Little Free Library. This is the first of three the Lions have purchased for Calumet City, and with COVID restrictions gradually easing, the chosen locations are finally open and the club can finally gather to install them.
The motto of the Little Free Library organization is “Take a Book – Share a Book.” The organization sells Little Free Library kits—some come assembled, while others can be assembled by the buyer. Books stocked in a Little Free Library are available free of charge. Readers are encouraged to take and read a book, then share the book with someone else or return it to the library. People may also place a good book of their own in the library for others to read and enjoy.
The Cal City Lions project was initiated by Lion Maria Valencia, President of the Cal City club. Maria and her husband Leo, also a Lion, live in Lansing and noticed the Little Free Library in the park near their house. “I saw it, and I fell in love with it,” said Maria. After donating books to that Little Free Library and noticing how quickly they disappeared, she was convinced that these tiny book outlets were meeting a need.
Eventually the Cal City Lions hope to donate and install a Little Free Library at each school district in Calumet City.
Lion Maria works at Lincoln School. “Ya know, parents by a LOT of books,” she said, noting that those books often get donated or passed along. “This is another place where good books can go.”
Pulaski Park is located at the southwest corner of Wentworth Avenue and Pulaski Road in Calumet City, Illinois.
Related
- New Hope Church offers Lansing another Little Free Library (September 2018 article)