'Little Free Libraries' Coming to St. Thomas!
St. Thomas is about to become a little bit more connected …
Hayhoe Homes, the St. Thomas / Elgin Regional Campus of Fanshawe College, and the team at young & free press have come together on a special project to build 'little free library' boxes for the whole community! The project started when Andrew Gunn and Maddie King at young & free press noticed that the City of St. Thomas officially named the area around the Elgin County Courthouse as the 'Courthouse Neighbourhood', and thought that maybe every neighbourhood could have a name, at least unofficially. They started researching the history and current culture of the City, and started coming up with names for every neighbourhood. This prompted a conversation: what if all these neighbourhoods could have a 'little free library' box?
Little free libraries are installations that include a post and a box where neighbours can leave books and take books. With this project in St. Thomas, the goal immediately became to design a ‘little free library’ box that would be distinctive to the Railway City.
Hayhoe Homes came on board to help support the project and design the library box, and students at the St. Thomas / Elgin Regional Campus of Fanshawe College will have the opportunity to build 35 boxes in the coming months! Andrew Gunn coordinated the funding for the project, which totals $15,000 provided by a few generous local donors. A formal launch of the project will be held in the spring and the library boxes will begin to be installed this summer.
In a nice twist, City Council in St. Thomas recently heard a presentation by local resident Sue Dodds, who brought forward the idea of installing two 'little free library' boxes in the city. This prompted Andrew Gunn to reach out to Sue and offer to provide a couple of the 'little free library' boxes in support, and invited her as well to attend the upcoming launch event. We love when community members come together around a fun idea! For anyone interested in this project, and perhaps hosting a 'little free library' box in the future, please reach Andrew Gunn at 519.709.5227, or via email at andrew@youngandfreepress.ca.
Here are some links to Instagram posts in which Andrew and Maddie name a few neighbourhoods in St. Thomas. Follow our Instagram account as we gradually cover the whole city! All our updates happen under the title ‘Andrew & Maddie Map St. Thomas’, and you can follow #andrewandmaddiemapstthomas for updates … we are so excited to launch this project!
Kettle Creek Village (Dec. 12): https://www.instagram.com/p/BrTgpSuHL6D/
Flax Mill Neighbourhood (Jan. 1): https://www.instagram.com/p/BsHJcEmHEd2/
Art Village (Jan. 25): https://www.instagram.com/p/BtD8Cf-HgcL/
Alma Village (Feb. 7): https://www.instagram.com/p/BtjIsI9HTP_/
