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THE ABINGTON s
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The Voice of The AbingTons
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Rotary unveils Little Library at Pocket Park
Around Town
Butterfly Release
June 25, 2015
A Book in the Pocket
ON THE INSIDE See what’s happening in our area Page 4
SUBURBAN
by Stephanie Longo
ABINGTON SUBURBAN EDITOR
It’s a “tiny yellow box” that’s filled with big surprises. The Rotary Club of the Abingtons recently unveiled its Little Free Library at the Finish Shop Pocket Park on Depot Street in Clarks Summit and it has already made a name for itself outside of the Abingtons. While en route to Watkins Glen, New York, Valerie Deely, her son, Eric, and Bob Wilson of Newark, Delaware, had stopped for dinner at the Silver Spoon restaurant. After finishing their meal, they noticed the yellow and blue box. Intrigued, Valerie and Bob decided to check it out. “Bob knew what the Pocket Park was and pointed it out to me, knowing my love for books, as well as our mutual enjoyment of the odd and unusual,” Valerie said, adding that while at the park, they ran into Clarks Summit Borough Mayor Patty Lawler, who has largely overseen the entire park’s progress. “People can take a book and pass it along to someone else when they are finished or they can bring it back or they can even replace it from their private collections,” Lawler said. “Unfortunately, the borough isn’t capable of storing large boxes of books, so we can’t accept large donations, but we do encourage people to swap books if they would like.” Rotarian Eileen Christian came up with the idea of adding the Little Free Library to the Pocket Park after learning how the entire Little Free Library international movement came about. “The idea for the pocket libraries came from Rotarian Todd Bol, from Hudson, Wisconsin,” Christian explained. “After his mother died in 2009, he traveled around in a mini van, listening to self-help books, trying to plan his future. When he returned from that trip, he and his wife turned their garage into an office. The garage door was replaced by windows. He did not want to discard the vintage garage door, so he made it into a miniature red schoolhouse. In memory of his mother, who loved to read, he filled it with books, put the library in his front yard and invited neighbors to visit the library and help themselves. That idea
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From left: Clarks Summit Borough Mayor Patty Lawler greets Valerie Deely and Bob Wilson of Newark, Delaware, at the Finish Shop Pocket Park on Depot Street. Deely and Wilson were passing through town when they noticed the new Little Free Library, which was recently opened by the Rotary Club of the Abingtons. The grand opening date for the Finish Shop Pocket Park will be announced later this summer.
has now become an international enterprise.” Besides the books, part of what makes the Little Free Libraries so appealing to people is the fact that they can travel to them. Each library is registered with the Little Free Libraries site; the library at the Finish Shop Pocket Park is number 17,238 worldwide. “There’s no accounting for the books dropped off at the little library,” Christian said. “Books are simply shared. Some books are dropped off, other books are picked up.” Christian, who also serves as library steward, said that Rotary member Ned Connell designed the library while Rotarian Harry Mumford built it, incorporating a special find from his summer travels. “Harry’s summer home is in Southampton, Long Island,” Christian said. “Several years ago, the library in Southampton was getting rid of its 100-year-old cedar book shelves to anyone in
the community who wanted them. Harry took the shelving, not knowing how he could use the wood. He recycled those old wooden shelves for the pocket library.” Although it is only a few weeks old, Christian said that the Little Free Library is already popular. “Whenever I go there, new books have arrived and old ones have found a new home,” she said. For Deely, her visit to Clarks Summit has inspired her to make a positive change in her neighborhood. “I am thinking about setting a Little Free Library up in my yard,” she said. “I live on a big loop that’s about a mile in length, so lots of people walk it for exercise. I think my house would be a perfect location for a little library.” For more information on updates at the Finish Shop Pocket Park, see page 2.