Barona Cultural Center & Museum Celebrates Unveiling of “Little Free Library”
New book sharing program to promote the joy of reading and inspire literacy in East County
(SAN DIEGO, CA) April 12, 2019 ‐ Little Free Libraries are a grassroots movement that has become a global phenomenon. What started as a small, front‐yard book exchange in 2009 now number 81,000 in 91 countries around the world. Now, a new Little Free Library just outside the entrance to the Barona Cultural Center & Museum on the Barona Indian Reservation will join the movement to share books, bring people together and create communities of readers.
Little Free Libraries are a book exchange program that invites community members of all ages to visit the site, share a book and take a book free of charge. The libraries are always accessible, and books don’t have to be returned by a due date and can also be passed along to a friend or donated to another Little Free Library. Barona’s Little Free Library will feature a selection of books for children and adults.
The museum hosted a ribbon cutting and grand‐opening party for their Little Free Library on Thursday, April 11 at 2:45pm. The celebration included crafts, snacks, free books and a very special reading of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
“Our Little Free Library doesn’t just belong to us, it belongs to the greater community,” says Chairman Edwin “Thorpe” Romero of the Barona Band of Mission Indians. “It’s our hope that this Little Free Library will inspire a love of reading among our younger Tribal members. We encourage everyone to take a book and share a book.”
Barona’s Little Free Library was made possible by a grant from the Native American Impact Library Program which was made possible through a partnership with Amerigroup, who has generously provided 36 Little Free Library book-sharing packages to U.S Native American communities.The Little Free Library nonprofit organization has been honored by the Library of
Congress, the National Book Foundation, and the American Library Association, and
Reader’s Digest named them one of the “50 Surprising Things We Love about America.”
Each year, nearly 10 million books are shared in Little Free Libraries. To learn more, please visit littlefreelibrary.org.
About the Barona Cultural Center & Museum
The Barona Cultural Center & Museum is located on the Barona Indian Reservation at 1095 Barona Road in Lakeside and is open Tuesday through Friday from noon to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free. For more information or to schedule a group tour, call (619) 443-7003, ext. 219 or visit the website at www.baronamuseum.org.
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