Book-sharing program set for Saginaw's SVRC Marketplace thanks to SVSU groups

Dedicated to bettering the community, Saginaw Valley State University students and staff will bring a growing-in-popularity book exchange program to a downtown Saginaw destination beginning this week.

 

The group will unveil a Little Free Library book-sharing box at Saginaw’s SVRC Marketplace, 203 S. Washington, during a ceremony Wednesday, Jan. 29, from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.

 

The box and event will be located in the building’s first-floor lobby facing South Washington. Light refreshments and food from City Café as well as Makin’ Bacon will be served at the ceremony.

 

The box — which organizers say resembles a bird house with a window — will feature space where patrons can both leave and take books at no cost.

 

Members of SVSU’s Saginaw Community Writing Center as well as the university’s Richard V. Wolohan Fellowship in Leadership and Service program teamed to organize the installation of the box from Little Free Library, a nonprofit organization created in 2009 that has facilitated the sharing of millions of books globally.

 

Vincent Flores, a chemistry major from Saginaw and a member of the Wolohan fellowship, said the book-exchange initiative advances the SVSU group’s determination to promote literacy in the community. The Richard V. Wolohan Fellowship in Leadership and Service was established at SVSU to encourage students to demonstrate community leadership.

 

“Our group is very excited to be doing this project,” Flores said. “It’s nice to take a step back and help others. That’s why I joined the fellowship.”

 

SVSU’s Saginaw Community Writing Center is operated by the same staff and students that oversee the university’s Bay Community Writing Center, which opened a Little Free Library box in Wenonah Park in Bay City in April 2019. Both community writing centers promote reading and writing across the region.

 

Students from the Saginaw Arts and Sciences Academy provided artwork that decorates the Little Free Library box. Members of St. Dominic Parish in Saginaw were among those who donated the first books that will be available in the Little Free Library box.

 

For more information about Little Free Library, go to https://littlefreelibrary.org/.

 

A Facebook page dedicated to Wednesday’s event is available at www.facebook.com/events/458745141670324/.