Literary exchange

DUNKIRK and FORT RECOVERY — Two Little Free Libraries were celebrated in local communities Monday.

One Little Free Library — donated by the sorority Psi Iota Xi and sorority member Lucy Staugler — sits beside the playground at Community Park in Fort Recovery. The other, which was donated by Girl Scout Troop 632, rests in the green space on the east side of Main Street between Railroad and Commerce streets in Dunkirk. Both allow for a free book exchange, meaning community members can take or leave books as they please.

“I think literature is so important because I think it broadens every person, no matter if it’s a child to an older adult, it broadens their understanding of things and it broadens their world,” Staugler said.

She proposed the Fort Recovery project to her sorority, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Its pledge includes the line “to study the best art, literature and music,” and she felt as though the Little Free Library went along with that theme. She contributed about half the funds needed to install the structure along with two benches to sit and read. The sorority dedicated the site to her mother-in-law, Virginia Staugler, who served as Fort Recovery librarian.

The benches have the Staugler family’s names engraved on them. There are also stone tablets with their grandchildren’s names in front of one of the benches.

Ace of Trades owner Dean Zehringer and coworker Mike Lauber added to the design to match the park theme. The structure was placed May 4, and books started appearing on the shelves the next day.

Dunkirk Girl Scout troop leader Nicci Gunckel and her six Scouts built a Little Free Library at Westlawn elementary school a few years ago, but it was destroyed by vandals. They decided last fall to build another library on Main Street beside the new mural, which is currently being painted. They shaped the structure after a glass bottle in recognition of the glass industry’s impact on Dunkirk.

As the troop finalized project plans, COVID-19 hit the community.

“We were excited to start, and then, boom, we were quarantined,” she said.

In light of schools and libraries closing for the shutdown, Gunckel said she felt as though it was more crucial than ever to get the Little Free Library set up in Dunkirk.

Gunckel asked Scouts to paint four planks that would be added to the sides of the structure. She left materials on each Scout’s porch and picked them up when they were finished. Her brother and son, Scott Gunckel and Joey Littler, built the exterior.

Scouts funded the Little Free Library through their cookie sales revenue, and they celebrated its completion with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday. The structure has been placed on Main Street for about a month.

Mary Diller, sorority president, noted the Fort Recovery Little Free Library sees frequent readers.

“Honestly, there hasn’t been a time that I’ve been at the park where someone’s not on the bench with a book in their hand,” she said. “I was sitting there one day and a little girl I never met before sat down next to me, and I read a book to her.”

The girl’s grandmother approached them afterwards, and Diller told her she could keep the book. Her grandmother said she didn’t have any books to exchange.

“I said, ‘Oh, no, it’s not like that. If you ever see another library somewhere, you can add a book to it or not, it’s OK.’”

To see the world map of Little Free Libraries, go to littlefreelibrary.org.