Hacking up pallets to build an outdoor library. It is not at the top of the list or the best thing to do during your school vacation in the heat of summer, but it turns out it was the right thing to do.
Girl Scouts and Cherry Hill High School East ninth-graders Paige Lomas and Elizabeth Hind used that time wisely, and the result was the installation and stocking of two little free libraries at two different locations in the Cherry Hill Public School system — Johnson and Kilmer Elementary Schools.
“We wanted to focus the (project) on education. We were driving around and noticed a bunch of these free libraries in some places, and then, there weren’t that many around Cherry Hill. So we decided to put some in,” Hind explained.
Although Lomas attended Sharp Elementary School and Hind attended Kingston, they ultimately decided not to set up the kiosks in their own neighborhoods. However, the memory of having these same libraries when they were younger fueled the idea that younger students should benefit.
“I remember growing up we had one at our school, and it really helped kids, so we thought if other kids in our neighborhoods can have one too,” Lomas said.
Back to the construction for a minute. Lomas described the process of breaking up the pallets and building the libraries occurring on the hottest day of the summer, but the painting of each happened on a separate day.
Lucky for them, installations did not occur until school started again in September, when temperatures dipped enough to be comfortable.
From there, the project caught on like wildfire. Lomas’ mother posted about the libraries, and Lomas herself caught it on Johnson Elementary’s Twitter account, then in October, Johnson Principal Jared Peltzman and Superintendent Joseph Meloche added their tweets of pictures of students enjoying the libraries.
“I felt pretty good about it. The principal emailed me and said there’s a lot of kids around it during recess — the ones who don’t like playing, they were enjoying the books. Now they have something to do during that time,” said Hind.
Hind and Lomas stocked both libraries themselves, thanks to a big boost from Just4Kids Consignment within Westmont Plaza in Haddon Township. The pair asked the owner, Sue, to donate some books for the cause and she kicked in the balance.
Both girls are not necessarily looking forward to a repeat performance with any future Girl Scout projects, but they wanted to pass along words of wisdom to those who might lose interest.
“I just want to emphasize that Liz and I … I know a lot of people in Girl Scouts will drop out as they get older, but if you stick with it, it’s so worth it, Lomas said.
“The older you get, the more fun trips you’ll go on. Liz and I are saving up to go on a trip to France and Spain during our sophomore or junior years. The older you are, the more you get to do community service, things like summer camp, camping trips.”
