By Callum Ludwig
The Rotary Club of Wandin were out and about to help foster a love of reading for local schoolchildren and the community with new street libraries.
The colourfully designed libraries were installed on Friday 27 October and can be found at the front of the Wandin North, Wandin Yallock, Seville and Woori Yallock primary schools.
Member of the Rotary Club of Wandin’s Youth committee, which he previously chaired, Peter Johnson said he got the inspiration from another street library installed by the Rotary Club of Boronia.
“I was working in The Basin and outside the cafe where I got my coffee there was a street library from the Rotary Club of Boronia, and then when I became the youth chair I thought I’d put this to the board and the members,” he said.
“They thought it was a good idea so we did our budget, worked out the cost and put in for a grant from the Upper Yarra Community Recovery grants which we were successful in getting.”
It was a team effort from then, with further funding from the Wandin-Seville Bendigo Community Bank, Kitchen Perfection in Lilydale cutting the plywood supplied by Dahlsens Building Supplies, Activity Playgrounds providing the posts, school students decorating and designing them and rotary members delivering and installing.
Mr Johnson said it’s all part of the Rotary Club of Wandin’s focus on working with local schools.
“It brings the community together with the school, that’s why we’ve put it just on the outside of the school property, so that the community, anybody walking past can take a book, give a book and share the experience,” he said.
“It’s all about that opportunity to take a book and it doesn’t cost you anything, it gives kids a bigger scope of opportunity to read different books or look at different books for the younger kids,”
“The quote from the artwork on the Woori Yallock library sums it up well for me, it says ‘Reading is dreaming with your eyes open’.”
At Wandin North Primary School, Art Captains Cooper and Scarlett led the project to provide some colour and uniqueness to their library, using up some of their playtimes over about six weeks to do so.
They said they went for an Australian bush theme.
“We thought that might go well with where we are, seeing what we have on the hills just across the road, and we put in some native animals like owls and ants crawling over it and things like that,” Cooper said.
“It feels good that it’s done because it will be here so long and for so many years for other kids to use,” Scarlett said.
All the street libraries are registered with Street Library Australia and can be found on their interactive map at: www.streetlibrary.org.au/find/.
Vice Principal at Wandin North Primary School Leigh Hallett said they are super appreciative of Rotary’s efforts.
“Rotary is always around for us and it’s really nice just having them pop in and out, but also seeing them come up with projects that really involve our kids and help our kids to connect with the bigger community,” he said.
“We’ve got a lot of books that people buy and use once so we’re glad to get them back in and make sure we’re putting them back into the community and we’re hopeful that people, not just from Wandin North, but other people are happy to drop in on their way home and get a book and keep using it.”
