There are hundreds – or, rather, thousands – of quotes extolling the wonders of reading. Famed animator Walt Disney believes books carry an immeasurable trove of treasure, while Taylor Swift credits them for training her imagination. JK Rowling speaks of the magic that occurs between pages, and Jane Austen bemoans that books have to end at all. Whatever your reason, one cannot deny the simplistic pleasure a book can bring. In this edition, we meet the team of volunteers that looks after Simbithi’s cozy reading nook: our Stables Honesty Library.
The story of the Stables Honesty Library finds its first pages in 2018, when the open space in the Stables Community Centre began to tickle the brains of the HOA management team. “We wanted to create a space where our community could enjoy a pocket of tranquility on the Estate,” General Manager Marc Mc Clure shares. “Several ideas were discussed, before a library was decided on.”
We sent out a call to our community for books: read or unread, new or gently used. Boxes arrived and, at the outset, we placed them onto shelves we had installed. We then established an ‘honesty system’, which allowed residents to take a book from the library and be honest enough to return it once they had read it.
Last year, almost five years into the library’s story, the space needed a tender touch and reintroduction to our community, particularly those who had since joined the Simbithi family and may not have known of its existence. We called for resident volunteers who would assist and, once again, the response was forthcoming.
Co-ordinated by Nigel McClure, a team of residents – who have named themselves ‘Friends of the Library – has been quietly volunteering at the library for the last year, unpacking and organising donations, sorting books into genres – and in alphabetical and subject order – and ensuring the selection of well-rounded, current reading material. “Residents should feel free to put new or returned books directly onto the shelves. The shelves are now almost full, which is wonderful to see.” In some cases, the volunteers have recycled very old, or duplicated books, and in many cases have donated them to a local school.
We recently visited some of the volunteers on a chilly morning, and their joy at a donation was heartwarming: armed with tea and coffee, they dove into the bags of books with gusto, unpacking them and remarking on the undisputed joy of reading.
We would like to thank the team of volunteers for their kindness in caring for the library: Barbara Koenig, Karenne Jo Bloomgarden, David Wilkinson, Dave Flanagan, Verna Cronshaw, Lynne Johnson, Dawn Domleo, Primrose Banks and Margaret Dunning.
