A southeast Calgary community has an impressive new addition, courtesy of one of its longtime residents.
Bernie Bird is a retiree and wanted to make some good use of his spare time during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’m always keeping myself busy,” Bird said. “I hear about these people that retire that get bored — I don’t get bored.”
The 72-year-old spent about a month in his basement crafting a creation for his front lawn. The British telephone booth replaces his old little library.
“I had time on my hands,” Bird said.
“I normally go away fishing in wintertime, but with virus I decided to cancel my trip and stay home and built a new library.”
People in the Chaparral neighbourhood say they are grateful Bird used his time in isolation to give back to the community. Karin Henderson was overwhelmed.
“We were driving by one day and thought, ‘What in the world is happening?’ And I saw him out on the front and I said, ‘What is this?!'” Henderson said.
“He said, ‘This is my quarantine project. This is my new library.'”
Bird said people in the neighbourhood drop by the “not so little library” at all times of the day. Crystal Retzlaff stopped by with full containers of books to donate.
WATCH: UK’s iconic red phone booths find new life in modern era
“I think it’s awesome,” Retzlaff said.
“He used to have a little one out here and I never used it before, but I had all these books from a yard sale and thought, ‘You know what? Let’s full this sucker up.'”
Bird was inspired by the British cultural icon recognized around the world. The brilliant red telephone booth is a great conversation starter.
Bird plans on spending the summer working on his garden and to maybe dive into a good book, if he has the time.