STEPHEN HUNT, a retired teacher from Dixie Elementary School, cuts the ribbon for the two Little Free Libraries he helped to bring to the campus on Friday.

Dixie Elementary School is giving the gift of reading to its community.

Two newspaper racks donated by the Tyler Morning Telegraph were repurposed, repainted and decorated by students, eventually finding their way to the campus to become Little Free Libraries.

“Many of our newspaper racks have seen better days after being serviced many years in our community,” said Matt Milling, director of circulation for the Morning Telegraph.“When approached to see if we’d be interested in donat

ing some of these racks for these portable libraries, I thought what a great way to put them to use to continue serving our community and continue our dedication to nurture literacy.”

Media technology specialist Dianna Young said one of the libraries is aimed toward young readers and the other for adults. Access to reading material can be an obstacle for the nearby neighborhoods because Dixie is outside of city limits.

“This is our gift to the community,” Young said. “It’s going to help a lot of families because many of our families live out of the city limits so they can’t use the public library unless they pay for it.”

Retired Dixie teacher Stephen Hunt came up with the idea to install the libraries and partnered

CLOSER LOOK

The Little Free Library movement began in 2009 in Hudson, Wisconsin. There are now more than 50,000 Little Free Libraries worldwide. Those registered with the organization are added to its map to help readers find Little Free Libraries near them.

with first-grade students to paint their handprints on the boxes and with students at the Career and Technology Center to make the boxes look like little houses.

“Any opportunity that children and adults have to read together is an opportunity to promote literacy,” Hunt said.

Young hopes that members of the community will see the libraries, placed near the road, and begin using them. She also hopes to get a selection of Spanishlanguage books for the libraries.

“This is for the community, anyone can come use it,” she said.

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