Little community library with a twist

CALGARY -

The community of Legacy in the southeast has two new little libraries that were put up at the beginning of October and instead of books, one is filled with games.

Alexandra Velosa is the president of the Calgary Legacy Community Association who says the idea was sparked by a Facebook post with someone trying to trade puzzles.

"We all love puzzles and games, but sometimes we get bored of the same games and the same puzzles," said Velosa. "So we were thinking about giving this library the opportunity for people to the exchange puzzles and board games."

Velosa pitched the idea to the Federation of Calgary Communities and received a grant for close to $2,500 to pay for two little libraries and some games and books to go in them.

"We also got  the kids in the community engaged to paint the libraries," said Velosa. "Because we wanted everyone to be part of it and participate and some of the ideas on how to decorate them came actually from them."

'I REALLY LIKE LEGO'

Valerie Herrera is 10 years old and was tasked with making the sides of the Play Little Library colourful, so she used Lego.

"I put it on the sides because the sides were pretty empty and my mom wanted to color on them but I wanted to put something fun and I put Lego because I really like Lego," she said.

Herrera says it took two days to paint and mount the Lego onto the little library and she's proud of how it looks because her friends and other kids in the community are playing with the games and the Lego.

"You just bring games (or) take a game which is pretty fun," said Herrera. "Yeah, it actually turned out really cool."

The Multicultural Little Library is a few blocks away and has greetings from a number of languages painted on the sides. This one shares books and recipes. Velosa moved to Canada from Colombia 17 years ago and says the community is diverse with people from many different backgrounds and places. She wanted to give everyone the opportunity to share a little bit of their culture.

"The idea is that it holds books in different languages and it also works as a space for people to exchange recipes," said Velosa. "When you want to learn about a culture, there is no way no better way than by their cooking so we are promoting recipe exchanging through the multicultural library."

Angie Locking is at the park with her four-year-old daughter Ezira and is sharing one of her favourite recipes.

"I know how to make those Vietnamese lettuce wrap rolls and you know people are always amazed when I teach them," said Locking. "But it's really so easy they just don't know how to work with the materials is all."

The two new little libraries are getting attention from other communities that are looking to set them up in their neighbourhoods.