Fourth grade students at Sacred Heart have created a free lending library for their neighborhood.
The students wanted to share their love of reading with their community, staff members say.
A waterproof container will become a lending library with the help of Pack's Do It Center, which donated an over-sized mailbox for the effort, and art teacher Cecelia Rommel, who painted a picture of a library on the box.
Books are available to any person who wants a book of his/her own at no cost. Books may be returned after being read, or donated by people in the neighborhood.
"My students love to read and are fortunate enough to have wonderful libraries in the classroom and the school from which to choose good books to read. The idea was appealing to the fourth grade class so the children in the neighborhood would have books available to them. My students are so loving and giving," said teacher Ann Marie O'Connor, fourth grade teacher at Sacred Heart.
Sacred Heart hopes this will be a community-building opportunity for Poplar Bluff, and says free libraries are common in communities around the nation.
Kevin O'Connor will mount the free library at the corner of Ninth and Vine Streets in Poplar Bluff very soon, staff members said. Many teachers at Sacred Heart will supply the library with the free books.