This slideshow requires JavaScript.

After a semester of fun, eye-opening, and challenging work, the Leveling the Playing Field in Charlottesville Quest finally got to deliver the first of their Little Free Libraries to the Virginia Discovery Museum this week. We have been so lucky to work with the Virginia Discovery Museum, whose team has been warm, welcoming, and enthusiastic about our project from the very first steps. We contacted them in the first stages of our designs, as we were brainstorming which community organization would benefit from a Little Free Library. The students were excited about the possibility of Charlottesville families browsing the LFL as they left the museum, taking and leaving new books to grow and update their home libraries with each visit.

You can see the process of designing and building our Little Free Library here. After building the structure, students chose the Little Free Library’s colors based on the VDM interior decorations, and even created a custom design on the sides to match the Museum’s logo. We were lucky enough to deliver the Little Free Library in person on Thursday, and to deliver hundreds of books to keep it stocked as families take books home to add to their personal collections. The books were collected by students in a school-wide book drive over six weeks. Our school community donated more than 300 books, which were split between the two Little Free Libraries we built.

A big thank you to the Virginia Discovery Museum team for always saying “Yes, and…”, even as our project grew and changed. We hope that the Little Free Library brings joy to you and your patrons for years to come. Below, I’ve attached the note sent from Janine Dozier, Executive Director of the Virginia Discovery Museum, to our group the day after out successful delivery. I’m proud of this partnership and students’ work to spread a love of literacy in our Charlottesville community.

Dear Leveling the Playing Field Quest Members,

Thanks to your creativity, passion, determination  and resourcefulness, all families in Charlottesville now have an easy way to access books that they may enjoy and keep. Helping young children build literacy skills is a key focus area for the Virginia Discovery Museum, and through the Little Free Library, the Museum’s over 70,000 annual visitors will now be able to build their own personal libraries. 

Thank you for your vision and dedication to sharing your love of reading and learning with all children in our community.