By Shannon McFarlin WENK/WTPR News Director
Paris, Tenn.—Thanks to a grant from the Henry Co. Health Department, the number of Little Free Libraries in Paris and Henry Co. has now doubled from five to 10.
With the $5,000 grant, the health department was able to place five more of the Little Free Libraries at the health department, Ogburn Park, McNeill Park, the Church in Paris, and Henry Baptist Church.
There already were five Little Free Libraries elsewhere in Paris that had been placed there by other agencies and groups: one outside of the Atkins-Porter Recreation Center in Paris which was installed by the Atkins-Porter Neighborhood Association; and others at Cash Savers, Eagle Food Store and Eiffel Tower Park, all in Paris, which were placed there by the W.G. Rhea Library. Plus, one at the entrance of Grove School in Paris, placed there by the school.
Public Health Educator Rachel Matlock said the grant was obtained from the Office of Minority Health and Disparity Elimination “and we wanted to use it in neighborhoods that might not ordinarily have access to books as readily as others.”
The health department, she said, sees installation of the Little Free Libraries as “an investment in the future of Henry County. We see literacy as essential for the future.”
All of the little libraries come from the national Little Free Library organization and have charter numbers on them. Matlock said the employees at the health department “really got into the whole project. We painted all of them because we wanted them to be colourful. We wanted them to be bright and appealing so that people would notice they’re there and use them.”
Matlock said when she first learned about the grant being available, she asked Paris Parks and Recreation Director Tony Lawrence whether the parks would be available. “He loved the idea. He said we could put them at Ogburn and McNeill Park and the project grew from there.”
City employees installed the Free Little Libraries at Ogburn and McNeill; health department employees put up the one at the health department; and volunteers from the Church in Paris and Henry Baptist Church worked together to install the libraries at their locations.
The idea of the Little Free Libraries is to ‘take a book, share a book’ and the health department employees make sure that all of them are stocked with books (both children and adult books) all the time, she said.
At the Church in Paris, installation was done during a Youth Night and health department staff conducted a reading activity during the installation. “There was a big group there and we had a ribbon-cutting,” she said. “It was really nice.”
The Henry Baptist Church installed theirs during Sunday service.
Matlock said the health department will be continuing to work with the Henry Co. Health Council to seek funds for more books. “We do encourage people to take books, but also to leave a book and share with everyone, though,” she said.
Improving literacy and reading scores in the local schools is a goal of the Health Department and the Henry Co. Health Council, she said, and this project is one part of that.
“This was a partnership project,” Matlock said. “A lot of partners worked to make this happen. There was a lot of love involved in this.”
Fayth and Patience England at Henry Baptist Church. (Henry Baptist Church photo).
Little Free Library at McNeill Park.
Little Free Library at Church in Paris.
Top photo: Rachel Matlock at the Little Free Library outside the entrance of the Henry Co. Health Department on Joy St. in Paris. (Shannon McFarlin photo).
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