March 26, 2020
When you’re walking around Takoma Park, keep an eye out for these fun free little libraries and framed poetry posters!
The Friends of the Takoma Park Maryland Library (FTPML) is an all-volunteer nonprofit organization that supports and sponsors library activities that encourage reading and learning. In 2019, our Community Building Blocks program supplied FTPML with free lumber and supplies for two of its many community projects!
The first project involves building and installing free little libraries near bus stops, parks, and other public locations. The second project involves creating wooden frames for Spring for Poetry. A collaboration between the FTPML and the Montgomery College School of Art and Design, Spring for Poetry involves graphic arts students designing posters of poems that are then installed throughout Takoma Park.
Earlier this year, we received a message from Walter Mulbry, FTPML Treasurer:
“This is just a short note to thank you for last year’s grant. The grant awarded to the Friends of the Takoma Park Maryland Library allowed me to obtain lumber and supplies for constructing five little free libraries and for making new frames for about 20 laminated posters for our city’s Spring for Poetry program. It was a great help!”
Mr. Mulbry also explained that the frames will be reused every year when FTPML installs a new batch of 20 posters. The 2020 set of posters will be a selection of some of the favorite posters from previous years. He adds, “My modest contribution has been to make new frames using sections of trex decking from Forklift.”
In addition to the little library and Spring for Poetry programs, FTPML also runs book clubs, poetry readings, learning and craft activities, author visits, book sales, an after-hours book drop box, books for an after-school program at the New Hampshire Recreation Avenue Center, and more.
If you’d like to help Community Forklift support more great projects like this, shop in our online store or in our warehouse, or make a donation. All proceeds from sales help Community Forklift lift up local communities through reuse. We turn the construction waste stream into a resource stream for communities in the DC region by keeping perfectly good items out of the landfill, preserving historical materials, providing free or low-cost building supplies to the community, and creating local green jobs.
