Little library looted
All the books from Minnie’s community library were stolen by a litter picker.
Marié Minnie, founder of Minnie’s Rocks at the corner of Sixth and Ugie streets, Northmead, is devastated that The Little Library on Sixth Street has been looted.
On October 27, the Benoni City Times reported on Minnie’s rock garden which is aimed at spreading kindness rocks throughout the city and beyond.
To expand on the initiative as well as her son Matthew’s (5) love for reading, the family placed an unused fridge on the pavement, thus establishing the suburb’s first community library.
“I had hoped to fill the top of the fridge with children’s and parenting books, while the bottom was dedicated to adult novels,” she said.
“Members of the community were encouraged to lend books from the stock available or to add to the collection. It was well supported.”
On November 14, while the family did their daily inventory check of the garden and library, they were shocked to discover that all the books had been removed from the fridge.
“Luke (2), Matthew and I do a daily check to see if any new rocks or books have been added to the collection, but the fridge was empty,” she said.
“Upon reviewing the CCTV footage we saw that a litter picker had inspected the fridge and proceeded to put every single book in his cart.
“If he took it to share with members of his community, great, but it would be a great shame if it was taken to add to his bounty of recycling.”
Disappointed but not despondent Minnie said that she is already in the process of procuring more preloved books for the library.
“Better security measures will unfortunately have to be put in place but I hope that members of the community would once again be willing to assist in building up the collection, especially children’s books,” she said.
“I am passionate about fostering a love for reading amongst kids and it gave me great pleasure to create a space where reading materials are easily available.”
Anyone willing to contribute to the library can contact Minnie on 083 511 9172.
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