Little Library of Hope
Smallwood Looks for Ways to Give Back to Community
Sasha Bush
The Ashland Beacon
It’s one thing to have a dream… it’s an entirely different thing to make that dream a reality. Dreaming big is always important but turning those dreams into a reality is much harder if you don’t have a clear picture of what you want to accomplish. For one local teen knowing what she wanted wasn’t an issue. Hope Smallwood, a seventeen-year-old junior at Boyd County High School, was selected as a 2022 Rogers Scholar. Part of being a Rogers Scholar is spearheading your own community service project. This project was right up Smallwood’s alley.
“In my free time, I like to read, hang out with friends, and volunteer. I am also involved in Key Club at both the school and district level,” shared Smallwood. Brainstorming for the Rogers Scholar project quickly began, and it didn’t take long for Smallwood to come up with the perfect way to help her community. “The brainstorming for our projects started with identifying a need within our local community. Once I started thinking of different ideas for a possible community service project, Boyd County’s Early Childhood Academy came to mind. I knew that they didn’t have a little library, so I decided that my project would be to fix that.”
She quickly went to work on the project. “My dad and I constructed a library box, and then I began receiving donations from teachers, libraries, and family. My hope is that this project will instill a love for reading within the children of our area. This project is extremely important to me because reading is the cornerstone of all education, and I want kids to start a love for reading at a young age. So, what better age than preschool? I think that others will share in my excitement because money doesn't have to be spent in order to benefit from this little library.”
After the construction of the library’s box, Smallwood knew she had to come up with a name for this project, so she came up with the name “The Lion Cub Library.” The Lion Cub Library is free for all children at the Boyd County Early Childhood Learning Academy to use. “The hope is that any child who attends the Boyd County Early Childhood Learning Academy can take a book and share a book,” stated Smallwood. The library features preschool age books that have been donated by various people, organizations, and schools. Had it not been for the generosity of so many caring individuals, this project would not have been possible. “If anyone would like to help this little library grow, they can contact me (Hope Smallwood) on my Facebook page “Lion Cub Library,” said Smallwood. Currently, the Lion Cub Library is in need of any preschool level books. With any luck, this little Lions Club Library will outgrow the little library box built by Smallwood and her father.
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. Then more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”- Dr. Seuss
