DENVER - All day long cars pass by the corner of South Logan Street and Center Avenue in Denver and most never notice the small wooden box on the corner. They are missing something neighbors don't.
It is the Page Gaines' Little Free Library.
About a year ago Gaines heard about a program that started in Wisconsin in 2009. The Little Free Library program encourages people to create book exchange programs in neighborhood. The program has now spread literally around the world. There are currently 16 Little Free Libraries in Colorado.
"Oh, I had about 15 or 20 books that I was going to take to Goodwill," says Gaines.
Instead, about a year ago he took an old kitchen wall cabinet, reworked it and attached it to post that he set in front of his home. The cabinet is now filled with books that neighbors restock.
"Lately more have come in than have gone out," says Gaines.
The worn, weathered and well-read books are a way for neighbors to share and connect with one another.
"A lot of conversations start out around those books," says Gaines.
"I do like the idea of reading other books that neighbors may have read," says Tenly Williams, a neighbor of Gaines and frequent visitor to the Little Free Library.
The neighbors have so embraced the Little Free Library that Gaines has made room for more books on shelves on his front porch. The books range from fiction to non-fiction and hardback to paperback.
While the Little Free Library is on face-value about books, it is in reality something that helps to bind a neighborhood.
"And we need more of that," says Gaines.
For more information about the Little Free Library program, visit their website at: www.littlefreelibrary.org
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