Helping Bridge the Word Gap Through Lending Libraries

Over the last year, many of us have had the opportunity to dedicate more time and energy towards creative outlets and mental wellness as a byproduct of the pandemic. Simple, traditional activities — such as riding bicycles, crafting and baking bread — have reemerged. For many of our households, the list of ‘home activities’ with our children, in lieu of the extracurriculars they would have had in and after school, grew long. In Chester County, Arts Holding Hands and Hearts, Inc. (AHHAH) has been dedicated to creating safe spaces for vulnerable youth in their community to have access to many of these things that were not accessible to them, even when they were in school or back at home.

AHHAH has been using art and mindfulness as a means of self-expression, promotion of literacy, awareness of mental fortitude and a vehicle to drive social and racial justice for many years now. They provide and partner with many individual contributors and local organizations to organize an array of incredible arts, literacy and mindfulness programs for children in the county. Additionally, they have a wonderful program that promotes early literacy in low-income and at-risk homes, which we gravitated towards immediately for our final service project of the Club season.

In late May, The Saturday Club member volunteers worked to build, paint and decorate a P.U.L.L. (Pop Up Lending Library) station following the guidelines provided by Arts Holding Hands and Hearts. With reclaimed wood donated by Mockingbird Acres and a creative plan to recreate some favorite scenes from the classic children’s book, “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle, our volunteers spent several days creating this special little structure. Our Club’s mountain laurel emblazoned on the front of the lending library and an etched heart with ‘TSC’ inscribed on the back wove our organization’s brand into the whimsical design that we hope the local children love as much as we do!

Having an opportunity to be outside, creating and talking to others during this project, reiterated how art “connects the head and heart” (as AHHAH shares is one of the core reasons they promote the arts with children in their programs). We ran a children’s book collection drive in tandem with our build so we could fill this library and others in the AHHAH program. We have recently found out that our P.U.L.L. station will find a permanent home locally and look forward to visiting our lending library outside the Regency Apartments Center in Coatesville, PA.