Picking up a good read is about to get easier in Schumacher.
The Schumacher Community Library Project unveiled today is helping mark the 110th anniversary of the community. It will see 10 book boxes built by Timmins High and Vocational School students installed later this fall.
“It will be a way for anybody who lives in Schumacher … to bring a book, take a book and enjoy the pastime of reading,” said Steve Pladzyk, District School Board Ontario North East (DSB1) superintendent.
The project started taking root a couple of years ago.
That's when the Schumacher Arts, Culture and Heritage Association (SACHA) started brainstorming ideas to celebrate the organization's 10th anniversary in 2021 and Schumacher's 110th this year, said Lloyd Salomone.
Last year, he said SACHA partnered to help out with the Peace Poles at the Schumacher Lions Park. The book boxes were chosen for this year's project.
With TH&VS recently starting its first-ever all-girls shop class, the book boxes were constructed mostly by them, said teacher Barry Trebilcock.
“What happens in the community, everybody has to work together for an angle — our goal is literacy, creating partnerships and giving the students opportunities that they can learn by. These opportunities are transferred throughout the community," he said.
“It’s a little bit of pride for them. They learned how to use tools, how to be creative, think out of the box … But more important than that, they’re giving back to the community. And when students get involved and build stuff, the odds of other students destroying them I think will be lessened because they know their friends probably built it."
The boxes will be located in around Schumacher, Gold Centre and the Carium Road area. They'll offer a variety of fiction, non-fiction, teen and children's books donated by the public as well as notices for community events in the community.
