Otter Lake council celebrated the installation of four new little library boxes across the municipality on Saturday, gathering at one outside the Raymond Johnston Community Centre to officially launch the new initiative intended to support literacy in the community.
Council’s vision was to have free, accessible boxes to encourage reading, according to Otter Lake mayor Jennifer Quaile.
Otter Lake now has boxes located at the recreation association, Millennium Park, Leslie Lake Park and the municipal transfer station.
Quaile said the project was made possible thanks to a Cultural Development Grant the municipality obtained from MRC Pontiac, and that council saw the opportunity to apply so that they could “encourage reading among residents.”
The grant covered 80 per cent of the project’s cost ($2,177), and the municipality covered the remaining 20 per cent ($544).
“We are well aware that the Pontiac has a relatively low literacy rate, so we want to do what we can to improve that,” Quaile said.
“Councillors [Vincent] Jones and [Penny] Dubeau got to brainstorming about what kind of initiative we could undertake with the funding, and they landed on the little library. So, we applied, and we’re fortunate enough to get it.”
The launch event additionally featured a reading from Pontiac children’s author Stacy Johnston and her daughter Maddy Belland. Johnston thanked the Otter Lake council for the invitation before offering a live-reading of her book Beau and Boomer Trails of Quyon.
“When I was asked to attend this event as a local author, I have to admit, I laughed,” Johnston said. “I don’t really think of us as authors. You won’t find our book on Chapters’ shelves or on Amazon. We’re simply a mother-daughter duo who had an idea and wrote a book.”
The municipality has purchased 120 books in both English and French to stock the four new library boxes, including novels for adults, books for teens, children’s books and even books on nutrition and good health. Books were also donated from Les Amis du Pontiac for the project.
Anyone may take a book or share a book, functioning on the honor system. Readers do not need to share a book in order to take one.
