Two teen siblings worked with the Town of Miami Lakes to get the municipality’s ninth Little Free Library installed in their Lake Martha neighborhood.
“I have seen the library in different parks, but it was a faraway drive,” said Ciancy Bernal, 13. “I wanted to build something closer to me so we can reuse the books and help the neighborhood expand, read and learn.”
A Little Free Library stands on a pole and with an $860 donation to the town’s Parks and Recreation Department, arrives stocked with books.
It’s up to the community to keep it going, by giving a book or taking one home.
“The satisfaction of completing this goal, and seeing others benefit from it, and instilling a sense of community with kids my age and forming camaraderie is what I got out of it,” said Armando Bernal, IV, 16, Ciancy’s brother.
“I didn’t really witness what I had done until the inauguration we had [on May 28] and some little kids came to leave a book at the library,” he said. “I felt really good about myself.”
It’s Armando’s second project that serves residents.
He created a proposal and petitioned the town council to get the portable skate park that is set up each month in town parks.
With $100 seed money from their parents Yancy and Armando Bernal to jump-start the library project, the teens said they asked neighbors for donations.
“It took about three or four weeks, knocking on a lot of doors,” said Armando, a rising senior at Hialeah Gardens High School.
“I know my sister and I, one day we went through a block or two of just knocking. At the minimum we [visited] 150 houses for the project.”
Ciancy, who will attend eighth grade at St. Bonaventure Catholic School in Davie, said her family are “avid readers” who will contribute books.
“It’s very cute and it looks very nice,” she said about the new bright blue library. “I pass it every day on my way to school. I’m really happy that I was able to accomplish this, me and my brother.”
To learn more about the town’s Little Free Library program, go to https://buff.ly/43lVJLP or https://buff.ly/3P2Q1tP.