Steffens build, donate Little Free Library

CRESCO - Thanks to Karen and Warren Steffen and their extended family, Cresco has its first Little Free Library, located just outside of the Cresco Area Chamber of Commerce building at 101 2nd Ave SW and facing Highway 9.

The idea began with the Steffens’ granddaughter Emma, age 13.

“For years I wanted to create a lending library,” Karen Steffen said. “Our son and his family were being moved from Michigan to California, so Jared called and said that Emma said she wouldn’t have to move all of her books if she could give some of them to me to make a lending library in Cresco.”

This year, the Little Free Library movement celebrates its 10th anniversary. According to the website littlefreelibrary.org: ‘Little Free Library is a nonprofit organization that inspires a love of reading, builds community, and sparks creativity by fostering neighborhood book exchanges around the world. 

Through Little Free Libraries, millions of books are exchanged each year, profoundly increasing access to books for readers of all ages and backgrounds. In 2009 Todd H. Bol created the first Little Free Library book exchange and placed it in his Hudson, Wisconsin, front yard in tribute to his mother, who had been a teacher. 

Ten years later, his idea has snowballed into a worldwide book-sharing movement. There are now more than 90,000 Little Free Libraries in all 50 states and 91 countries, from Argentina to Zambia.’

After hearing of their granddaughter’s request, Karen Steffen’s husband, Warren, went to work, building the Little Free Library in his home shop.

“While I was working on it, a neighbor stopped over and was talking about wishing Cresco had lending libraries and here I was building one,” he said. “It took me a couple of weeks. I glued the sides and let it sit and then we had to paint it. I did it in my free time. It’s not that difficult to do and you can decide what you want it to look like. You can also just buy one on the Internet.”

The Steffens wanted to imbue their gift to Cresco and its residents with personal meaning.

“Nobody wants to do it the way we did,” Karen Steffen said with a laugh. “The shelf was already in and the door was on and everything was finished, but I wanted to paint the inside. So, I did it the hard way, painting the inside after it was all put together.”

For inspiration, she turned to her past and family memories.

“When the kids were little, we used to travel and look up at the clouds and try to find shapes.”

 Since I love flowers and butterflies, the grandchildren did a magnetic butterfly and we took pictures from magazines and taped them there. Our Cresco grandchildren, Olivia and Eva, did the magnetic butterfly,” she said. “We wanted to have meaning inside of the box.”

The outside of the box has special significance for the Steffen family, as well.

“We enlisted Patty Schrage of Signs and Designs of Cresco to do the outside of the box. We put a horseshoe on one side to represent Emma’s horse from Michigan. We had thought we were going to get an actual horseshoe, but when they moved that didn’t happen. One side of the box is bare so that if we do eventually get a real horseshoe, we can put it there,” she said.

Once the Little Free Library was completed, the Steffens toured Cresco, searching for a perfect location.

“We drove around Cresco and came up with too many ideas about where to locate the library. We stopped at the Chamber office and talked to Spiff (Slifka) and she had a lot of great ideas and it ended up being put here,” Steffen said.

Cresco Area Chamber of Commerce Development Coordinator Spiff Slifka said, “I’ve seen close to a dozen people of all ages open it up. Some put books in and some take books out. We’ve had people come into the office and ask about it.”

She has an ambitious plan to challenge local organizations to build and donate even more Little Free Libraries to Howard County.

“This winter, I want to challenge the American Legion, the American Legion Riders and the VFW in the county to make more Little Free Libraries and place them in our campgrounds and parks throughout the county. When they finish, I want to do public voting on the favorite lending libraries,” she said.

She also plans to register Cresco’s Little Free Library and any others donated on the Little Free Library website.

“We also need to register the Little Free Library and we can apply for a map from the website. When people go through communities, they can see where the lending libraries are located,” she said. 

Meanwhile, people are already beginning to notice the colorful Little Free Library.

“We’ve had a couple of people mention how nice and cute they are,” she said. “I think it’s neat that this whole project started with a little girl (the Steffens’ granddaughter). We’ve seen kids on their way to the Legacy Gym stop and look inside the lending library. We’re hoping to have nine to 12 more Little Free Libraries in the county,” Slifka said.

For her part, Karen Steffen said she has heard positive feedback from people who notice the Little Free Library.

“A neighbor found out about it and called to thank us. They said that when they travel, they look up the lending libraries in towns and stop to take books.”

Steffen said her young Cresco granddaughters were impressed with the Little Free Library, although it didn’t appear as they had expected.

“When they went to see it, my five-year-old granddaughter Olivia said, ‘Grandma, it’s not like a real library, where you go inside, but it still has really good books.’ Now they visit it all of the time,” Steffen said. 

The public is welcome to take books from the Little Free Library to read and to donate books. The books for younger readers are located on the bottom shelf. The top shelf features books for readers junior high-age to adults.

“We hope people will also build or donate more Little Free Libraries,” Steffen said.

For more information about the Little Free Library movement, visit the website: https://littlefreelibrary.org/.