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The City of Eureka, local bookstores and the Humboldt County Library all partnered to host Eureka’s very own Literacy Day to provide the community with more reading opportunities.

It was also the day to celebrate Eureka’s unveiling of its new lending library and C.A.P.E.’s new ABC traveling library.

In this LoCO Video Report we take you to Henderson Center for the official ribbon cutting ceremony and to find out more.

Efforts for these two projects kick started just a few months ago, but quickly came to fruition thanks to Parks and Recreation’s proactive employees and the generous community.

 “We just put on social media, hey we need some books for these projects, and they came in droves. We got about 2,000 books for these projects. Lots of books,” said Eureka project manager, Brian Millett.

“We couldn’t have done it without the contributions of the community, added C.A.P.E program coordinator Jeff Davis. “It’s gone way better than we thought it would have.”

The first project was transforming an phone booth on F Street into a colorful free lending library, where you can take a book or leave a book, and there’s books for all ages.

Senior planner Delo Frietas from Development Services had the idea.

“Henderson Center is going through a beautification process right now and this is a particular location that’s excellent for a mini library,” she says. “And this phone booth has just been sitting here abandoned for a little while, so it seemed like a good time and place.”

And Parks and Rec media coordinator Joseph Carter also happens to be an artist and painted the phone booth with a design from Shel Silverstein’s book The Giving Tree.

“I had a really good time and it’s very fulfilling to start and finish something and to have it right here for everyone to see,” he said.

Then there’s the ABC traveling library which stands for Accessible Books from C.A.P.E. — Which is the Community Access Project for Eureka.

The ABC traveling library kicked off its first route after the ribbon-cutting and was heading to visit kids at the Serenity Inn, and the Greater Eureka Community Outreach Project — better known as Betty Chinn’s container village.

C.A.P.E. also plans to add more organizations and parks in the upcoming months, with a weekly program starting in January.

As for the lending library, it will be open Monday through Friday 6-4 and weekends 6-6.  

“We will maintain it, but Old Town Coffee and Chocolates and Dave’s Place have teamed up to do the locking and unlocking,” said Millett. “So it will be secure in the evenings.”

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