Virginia Beach has five more free little libraries thanks to Salem High School senior English students, including Steel McLeod.
“I’m actually helping people,” Steel said. “Honestly, I feel like it’s important to get the younger people to read.”
Planning, funding, building, installing and stocking the five free-standing little libraries were part of the school’s senior English “Passion Project” initiative.
The wooden structures were built at Salem High School and transported to Virginia Beach neighborhoods. Community members are welcome to take a book for free and encouraged to place books inside the libraries for others to read.
Sonya McGee’s students participated.
“Students learn to think outside themselves and find ways that they are passionate about to support and inform others,” she said. In past years, students’ service-learning activities included making toys for the SPCA, writing letters to service members, and participating in Clean the Bay Day.
This year’s focus was literacy. Students could choose between the free little libraries’ project and reading to Rosemont Forest Elementary School children. Some English as a Second Language(ESL) students felt more comfortable reading to a pet.
Senior Des Bell read to Rosemont Forest second graders. She was amazed to see the excitement in their eyes as she turned the pages. “At first I didn’t want to do it,” she said. “But it ended up being one of the best things I’ve done this year.”
Students from five classes – about 125 – chose to work on the free libraries’ team.
Approximately $300 was raised through the online fundraising platform GoFundMe.
The Home Depot provided discounts on supplies, including paint and wood. English teacher Lauren Wallace’s husband and father-in-law cut most of the wood and delivered it to the school.
Students gathered in groups to brainstorm different themes and designs for each library, based on locations secured after McGee and English teacher Lacy Krell reached out to the community on social media.
Some students painted and built structures, which resemble giant birdhouses. They were secured to wooden beams and cemented into automobile tires.
Others held a schoolwide book drive to stock the libraries, offering a hot chocolate and doughnut party prize to the class collecting the most books.
Fairy garden and Virginia Beach festival-themed libraries were each placed outdoors near private residences. The one near Club Brittany Pool has an ocean theme, while the Rosemont Forest Elementary little library has a story time look. The Salem High School little library resembles an English telephone booth and is positioned near the school’s baseball field.
Community members are welcome to take a book for free and encouraged to place books inside the libraries.
English department chair Kathleen Trace has incorporated service learning into her classes for 18 years. She brought the “Passion Project” to Salem during her first year at the school 10 years ago. The following year the project became a Salem-wide senior year experience.
Trace is passionate about the Passion Project.
“I am a firm believer that self-driven free inquiry in relation to something students are passionate about gives them the drive to find new pathways to learning,” she said. Students have the chance to be creative and solve real-world problems, she added.
Senior Jackson Chase said the project was gratifying. “Your work actually goes to improve someone’s life,” he said.
