A small box on the banks of the St. John River will act as Grand Bay Westfield’s newest library.
The new Free Little Library was officially opened on Wednesday at the Bundage Point River Centre and can hold about 50 free books. The only catch: book lovers are encouraged to leave a book behind to replace the one they take.
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Grand Bay-Westfield Mayor Grace Losier says the project is a way to make reading fun and accessible for the surrounding community.
“It’s an opportunity for children to come and take a book and leave a book and since I was here on Wednesday and did the official opening I can see that that has happened even since then,” she said.
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The project is funded by the provincial government and put together in partnership with Quality Learning New Brunswick and the Saint John Free Public Library. Many of the books making up the collection have been donated by the west side branch of the Saint John library, but the town has contributed something from a local favourite.
“We donated Abigail Eats Bugs just on Wednesday when we opened. That’s a beautiful book by Virginia Pye, a member of our community that has published her first book. So we donated that and I noticed this morning that it’s already been borrowed so that’s perfect,” Losier said.
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The river centre coordinator Laureen Lennan says it’s a perfect place to put the new project.
“Well I think it’s a perfect location for it because this is a waterside gathering place and it’s part of the community and we have lots of traffic coming here on a daily basis and this is just a wonderful addition to the Brundage Point River Centre,” she said.
The box is located right beside the playground and a bench over looking the river, a perfect place to sit and read in the summer time.