North Manchester Rotary and Manchester University will dedicate a Little Free Library on campus at noon Thursday, April 16. Students, faculty and staff are invited.
The new Little Free Library is in the 600 block of College Avenue, next to the public sidewalk at MU’s Oak Grove.
“Rotary and MU are dedicated to promoting literacy and environmental responsibility, and this Little Free Library combines both,” said Rotary President Anne Gregory, a retired MU staff member. “Studies have proven that having access to books you can keep helps increase reading rates, especially among young people. Rotary now has five Little Free Libraries in town and contributes to several others, keeping books out of the waste stream.”
The Little Free Library at MU itself is an upcycled metal newspaper box.
“We ask that you ‘take one book and leave one book’ so that the selection is always changing,” said Ruth Barrett ’82, Rotary’s service chair and president of the MU Alumni Association Board. “Books for children in English and Spanish are especially popular.”
MU provided the space in its landscaped area and produced the sign featuring Manny as part of the collaboration.
“We welcome you to visit, pick up a book and hang out in Oak Grove,” said Manchester President Stacy Young ’96, who is a member of Rotary. “Manchester so happy to join forces with Rotary on this project.”
Rotary’s other Little Free Libraries are at Warvel Park, in front of Tri-Oaks Realty, at the North Manchester Public Safety Building and inside Hoosiers Scrub laundromat.
“We encourage residents and businesses to put up their own Little Free Libraries. A family has one on East Street, the North Manchester Public Library has one out front, and we often put our extras in the bookcase inside the Town Life Center,” Barrett said.
So many books are donated by town residents that so far Rotary never needed to purchase even one.
“Our community is so generous, we are sometimes overwhelmed by the volume,” Gregory said. “If anyone wants to put up a Little Free Library, let us know and we’ll gladly share the bounty to get you started.”
Students who wish to become Little Free Library stewards may contact Gregory at
aggregory@manchester.edu. Tasks include sorting donated books and monitoring a box.
North Manchester Rotary meets at noon the first and third Thursday of the month, usually in the Jo Young Switzer Center. Guests are welcome, and there is no cost to attend. Contact the club via
Facebook for more information.
The North Manchester club maintains the pollinator garden it helped establish at the public library, is collaborating with Daniel’s Place to put in a Peace Pole garden at its facility being built on Market Street, and it sponsors athletic Rotary Mental Attitude awards at the high school.
Globally, Rotary’s 1.2 million members volunteer to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace with projects that target health, provide education, heal the environment, and alleviate poverty. It works toward lasting change, such as eradicating polio, working with communities to build facilities for clean water and training for those who work toward peace.
In 1945, Rotary International was one of 42 organizations invited to serve as consultants to the U.S. delegation at the United Nations Charter Conference. Manchester alumnus Andrew Cordier ’22 played a significant role in the founding of the UN and the drafting of its charter.
