Yesterday evening on Central Avenue in Front of Richard Wyatt’s House, Cindelle’s Bookstore, the Richard Wyatt Foundation, and PARC kicked off the first of six Free Little Libraries.

“I would go around to surrounding towns, and I would see these [little libraries]. I would get upset because there are none in Plainfield,” bookstore owner Cindelle Harris-Blackmon said to a crowd gathered at the ribbon cutting. “That was part of my inspiration.”

This also served as motivation to open her store, which is celebrating two years since its launch towards the beginning of the pandemic – back when the world was much more closed than it is right now. As an avid reader, Harris recalled disappointment that there was no where in town to buy books.

Now there’s a place where anyone can pick out a book to read, right at 1038 Central Avenue. Participants can take a book they find interesting and, ideally, replace it with another that they’ve already read. This keeps the library stocked, and allows community members to share books they enjoy with each other. There are no locks and no one to call for access: it’s all based on the honor system. You can learn more about little libraries at the Little Free Library website.

“This is where dreams come true,” concluded Harris-Blackmon, while thanking Richard Wyatt as well as Terence Johnson, of PARC. These organizations will partner to install five more such libraries around Plainfield, in all four of the city’s wards.