NORTHEAST TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) — A “little free library” built by preschoolers at Killearn Lakes Preschool is full again after someone stole more than 50 books and threw them in a dumpster just a week after it was installed.
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The theft hit especially hard because students built the box themselves during the preschool's "Construction Week," painting it and installing it outside.
Students John Paul and Maddox were among those who helped put it together.
"We holded the drill and like helped made it a lot, make it a lot," Maddox said.
"They chose to throw them away, which I think might even be worse. It makes me feel sad. It makes me feel sad for this small community of Killearn Lakes, because you don't feel like you live in a place where someone would be willing to do that," Owner Allison Crawford said.
Crawford says the box was designed to motivate students to read. HeadStart reports that reading at an early age helps kids develop language and supports pre-literacy skills.
"I think that now it's very hard to get children to be motivated to read, and I think that building something like this gave them a different type of motivation than just sitting down as a chore and having to read," Crawford said.
However, the community rallied quickly. Crawford said has she received about three boxes of donated books since the theft.
"It feels amazing. We had many, many past families that donated whose children are in middle and high school, and they came by and donated books to the cause, and we have current families that have re-donated books," Crawford said.
Crawford said the school is now installing security cameras facing the box to prevent future thefts.
As for what the students had to say to whoever took the books:
"No, that's mine. You can't take that from me," John Paul said.
"No, we put those books in there," Maddox said.
Because of the volume of donations, the school is encouraging the community to start using the box again to cycle through the books and make room for more.
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