Book Club members collaborated with Ghostlight Technical Theatre Club to further progress on the former’s new Little Free Library service project last Wednesday.
Little Free Library is a nonprofit organization dedicated to “building community, inspiring readers, and expanding book access” through “book-exchange boxes.” Book Club members walked into the theater studio to find a wooden frame for their project already built. Technical theater instructors Ms. Alyiece Moretto-Watkins (Ms. M-W) and Ms. Ashley Hyde gave them directions and helped them stay safe as they worked.
Ms. M-W established two primary objectives for the hour: Some students would sand and spackle the frame, while other Book Club members would create decorations to attach.
Eighth grader and Book Club member Liliana Stojack sands down the wooden frame. “It was really fun because I’m part of Book Club and I’m also part of Ghostlight. Books are my favorite thing ever other than theater,” Stojack said. (Photo/Alex Ngo)
Freshman and Book Club Social Media Manager Sophia Antipova Armani spackles the Little Free Library frame, spectated by Book Club Secretary Paloma Arrigui Villarreal, after Ghostlight members hammered in any remaining staples or nails sticking out of the wood. Spackling is the process of filling in small cracks or imperfections, such as those left by the staples hammered into the wood, with a putty-like substance. “[Working on the project] was very uniting, because we got to meet some people from Ghostlight … and doing something hands-on … unites people very well. That was the best thing we could have done,” Armani said. (Photo/Alex Ngo)
Junior Alexander Ngo scores a plastic sheet with assistance from Ms. Hyde, who adjusts his hand to make sure he scores the plastic safely. After scoring, he broke off the small region of plastic with pliers. Ms. M-W used the two plastic rectangles she had students cut to size as panes for the door to go on the front of the Little Free Library. (Photo/Sophia Antipova Armani)
Book Club members created paper trees on fake grass to decorate the Little Free Library, but their work was far from finished. At the end of the session, Ms. M-W made suggestions on how to improve the decorative scene and club members shared ideas for other decor. (Photo/Alex Ngo)
Junior and Book Club Co-President Sofia Barrera, in the meantime, was busy seeking out everyone who had come to participate in the project so she could log them for service hours, so “I did not get to do any of the moments,” she said. “But they looked like they were having fun, and that’s what matters to me.”
Originally, the idea to build a Little Free Library in collaboration with Ghostlight was the idea of the previous president, class of 2025 alumni Gwyneth Leal.
“However, it was never actually realized, so I ended up being the person who reached out to them, made sure it happened,” Barrera said.
“I just love seeing disciplines coming together. Theater coming together with people who love to read and want to perpetuate a love for books … No matter what kind of library comes out of it, I think it’s the way that they got there that really matters. However, I’d be super, super excited if this library ends up going to a neighborhood where people are going to have a really fun exchange of books. That also makes me extremely, extremely happy to be supplying literacy,” she said.
There is still a long way to go until the Little Free Library is finished. It needs to be painted, fully decorated, supplied with books and then hopefully installed somewhere to serve a local community.
“They all want to come back, so that makes me happy,” Barrera said.
