Girl Scout Troop 2278 recently built and installed a Little Free Library on the Seabreeze Elementary campus. The troop, made up of 11 girls who attend Seabreeze and Jacksonville Beach Elementary, chose the Little Library as a service project to give back to their community.
Kiley Beckham, a Jacksonville Beach Elementary fourth grader, proposed the idea to her fellow Girl Scouts after seeing Little Libraries at other schools in the area.
“We’re all beach kids and we wanted to do something that would help out all the kids that live in our neighborhood,”, explained Beckham.
Little Free Libraries are a phenomenon popping up at schools and parks around the country. They encourage readers to take a book and leave a book, allowing access to free reading material to all who visit.
Troop 2278 used the money they raised selling Girl Scout Cookies to fund the project. The Girl Scouts decided on a design, learned how to use tools while building the library, painted the library, and even collected books from friends and family to make sure it was filled with kid friendly books.
Berkeley Szarmack, a Seabreeze Elementary fourth grader, was excited for the troop to paint the library with an underwater theme, making it perfect for an installation at a beach school.
“My favorite part was painting the Little Library so we could make it unique for Seabreeze."
