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the Lockport Legend | August 9, 2018 | 7
United Way opens free library at Fairmont School
Jacquelyn Schlabach
Assistant Editor
In an effort to spread the joy
and importance of reading,
United Way of Will County
Women United opened its
first My Little Free Library
Aug. 1 at Fairmont School in
Lockport.
As part of the Read to Succeed
Program, Women United
aims to increase access
to literature and the capacity
for children to read, which
led them to working with
Fairmont for the last eight
months to get this project —
which allows the community
to take books for free — up
and running.
“With Read to Succeed,
Fairmont is actually one of
the lowest scoring elementary
schools in all of Illinois,”
said Samantha Young,
program manager at United
Way of Will County. “It’s
right here in Will County, we
work only in Will County for
our United Way, so it was the
obvious place for us to start.”
On the morning of Aug. 1,
approximately 15 volunteers
with Women United — a
group of women who work
to build stronger communities
as part of United Way
of Will County — including
Fairmont School Principal
Tamela Daniels and Superintendent
Diane Cepela, came
together to label more than
900 books with the Read
to Succeed logo to fill the
shelves of the little library.
“We’re just very excited
about this opportunity that
United Way Women decided
to choose Fairmont to do this
with,” Daniels said. “We’re
just going to push the reading
again and making sure
our students are exposed to
as much reading as possible,
here at school and at home.
This just opens up that opportunity.
We’re so very grateful
that they chose Fairmont to
actually work with and to
partner with to give the opportunity
to our students and
parents.”
The books available for
free are of all reading levels,
starting from preschool and
read aloud stories, to chapter
books for sixth grade and up.
Cepela said 43 percent of the
student population at Fairmont
is Hispanic, which led
Young to order 300 Spanish
books that are also available
in the library.
“We have a huge Hispanic
population,” Daniels said.
“We have students that are
learning more English proficiency.”
The top of the book shelf,
which also serves as a bench
for children to sit and read on,
says “Toma un libro; comparte
un libro” on the first block
of wood, and below it has the
English translation, “Take a
book; read a book.” All the
books were either donated or
bought by Women United.
“I think [My Little Free
Library] is a great idea,”
Fairmont librarian Brittany
Garrett said. “A lot of our students
don’t really have a big
selection of books at home,
so any kind of free service
that they get to have books is
amazing.”
Garrett said having the My
Little Free Library is encouraging
for students to take the
initiative and read.
“Just having the availability
of books that you can
read and pick up and you can
kind of look through and find
something that you’re interested
in instead of being told,
here take this and read this,”
she said. “I think that is really
encouraging for our kids to
kind of go ahead and read it.”
Michelle Monroe, a firstgrade
teacher at Eichelberger
Elementary School in Plainfield,
was there Aug. 1 to help
label the books and stock the
shelves. She has volunteered
with United Way of Will
County for a decade and recently
wanted to find another
way to help, which led her
to the Read to Succeed Program.
“With me having a passion
for literacy, I thought this was
a great opportunity for me to
get involved in efforts to promote
reading in homes in the
community,” she said.
Young hopes that My Little
Free Library will not only
encourage children to read,
but the parents to read to the
children.
“We do know that if the
parent isn’t reading to the
kid, then the kid is going to
struggle in literacy more,”
she said.
Fairmont School Principal Tamela Daniels hammers in the
My Little Free Library number onto its bench Aug. 1 as
United Way of Will County Women United labeled books
and stocked them shelves on the free library. Jacquelyn
Schlabach/22nd Century Media
The space where the library
is located is right next
to the preschool classroom
and where they also have
English Language Learners
classes. The books can easily
be accessible to parents who
drop off their students.
“We’re really excited to
be able to have this here as a
high-traffic spot for students
and we’ve been grateful for
Diane’s partnership,” Young
said.
The goal is that the free
library can be sustained by
the community by working
together to always make sure
there are books available for
students to have. The Fairmont
Community Center is
to be the next location to have
Premier flooring company, providing custom looks for
hardwood, carpet, tile, stone, vinyl and laminate.
Heather Andreana and Rob O’Connor, owners
the free library.
“[My Little Free Library]
is going to increase their love
for reading, making sure that
they are understanding their
vocabulary, having that understanding
of text that they
are reading, and building that
comprehension,” Daniels
said. “It will help them to be
more solid readers.”
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