Sierra Martin is a volunteer with the Little Free Library of Macon, known for installments such as the “Tardis” library on College Street. On Oct. 30, Martin hosted a table during the “On the Table” event hosted by the Community Foundation of Central Georgia. Her topic was aestheticism and altruism in Macon’s volunteer work.
“On the Table” is a series of discussions about community issues in a single day. Martin said her goal with the table was to find ways to make the Little Free Libraries more beneficial to the community.
“The Little Free Libraries are cute, aesthetic pieces in our community,” Martin said. “However, we want our work in the community to be more than something good to look at.”
During the summer, Martin said the Little Free Library used church camps to drive support for the library and other literacy programs. By bringing summer reading books directly to kids at camp, Martin said the Little Free Library was able to find more potential volunteers.
“Sometimes people don’t really become involved with a project until you bring it to their doorstep,” Martin said.
Wendy Cassidy, who has worked with the Little Free Library since its beginning and is a long-time volunteer with the Friends of the Library volunteer group, attended the table. Cassidy emphasized the importance of literacy and “seeding” kids’ homes with books.
“The aesthetics are important for a lot of different projects, but the purpose behind it is to not only increase literacy in our community, but provide books in people’s homes,” Cassidy said.
As part of her work with the Friends of the Library, Cassidy said the group has purchased a van to create a Macon “book-mobile” to bring books straight to kids’ neighborhoods. As a child, Cassidy said the book-mobile in her own community fostered her love for reading.
“When I grew up, when I was not in school, I absolutely lived for that book-mobile,” Cassidy said.
Martin said her goal with the discussion was to find ways to make the Little Free Library more than something people enjoy seeing around town.
“I don’t want it to be something we look at anymore, I want it to be something we get our hands on,” Martin said.
