Somerset Shed Pays it Forward

In January, Ms Andrea Lewis (Festival Director for the Celebration of Literature) approached the Somerset Shed Mentors and asked them if they were up for the challenge to build a “Street Library”? You may ask, “What is a Street Library”?

A Street Library is a beautiful home for books. Located in an easily accessible spot within the community. They are an invitation to share the joys of reading with everyone. The Somerset Shed undertook this project on day one of Term One and started planning to create two homes for books.

The design was created by Ava Luxford and Emma McTaggart based on similar projects that we had done before when building the nesting boxes that we donate to the Currumbin Wildlife Hospital. Laminated Pine Sheets were cut to size (and re-cut if they were not to size). The next stage was assembling the street library structures, followed by the all important decorating (painting) to give our street libraries character!

Our goal was to complete this project in time for the Twenty Fifth Chapter, this year's Celebration of Literature. We are pleased to see that one of the Street Libraries will be positioned at Broadbeach Family Practice. The second Street Library will be delivered to the Cherbourg community where we visit annually for the 'B Trips'.

We are sure that these street libraries will be a window into the mind of the community. A place where books can come and go; no-one needs to check them in or out. People can simply reach in and take what interests them; when they are done, they can return them to the Street Library network, or pass them on to friends.

Thank you to the following Year 10 Somerset Shed Mentors for giving up their time to complete this project from start to finish – Emma McTaggart, Ava Luxford, Shauna English, Jack Daly, Thomas Liu and Samuel Liu.

We hope that our street libraries are filled with books; enjoyed by the community and become a symbol of trust and hope – a tiny vestibule of literary happiness.