A passion for reading, accessibility and community has sparked a partnership between The Rotary Club of North Fulton, the City of Alpharetta’s Recreation, Parks & Cultural Services Department, and local residents. Together, at a celebration held at the Alpharetta Community Center Friday, October 26th, they announced four new Little Free Libraries located inside Alpharetta city parks.
This launch was celebrated a week after the passing of Todd Bol, founder of Little Free Library. Bol’s “take a book, leave a book” philosophy has created a global community of more than 75,000 small, unique book exchanges and spans more than 80 countries. The energy created by this movement spread and has inspired local community members to engage the City of Alpharetta to collaboratively launch this exciting new initiative for park guests. “Great ideas like this from the community are what make our local parks thrive”, shared City of Alpharetta Council Member Jason Binder at the recent event.
This shared vision kept key players committed to overcoming hurdles encountered throughout the location scouting process. “We have a devotion to literacy and want all children in our community to have access to books” says Rotary Club of North Fulton’s Doug Higgins. Doug built three of the four libraries that now reside around Alpharetta’s parks. Local resident, Lisa Gelber shared this passion and jumped on board to help make these libraries a reality. Lisa, who has collected more than 500 books donated by friends and family, will serve as the local caretaker of the four libraries located at Wacky World at Wills Park (in memorial of Angela Krause and donated by the Krause Family), Cogburn Park, Alpharetta Community Center, and North Park.
The celebration was attended by approximately 30 people, including Alpharetta Mayor Jim Gilvin, members of The Rotary Club of North Fulton and community members.
For questions regarding these libraries or to donate please email: alpharettareads@gmail.com.