Sacred Heart Catholic School

SALISBURY — Sacred Heart Catholic School just celebrated the first day of its new little free library.

With only a few days of classes left, the school faculty wanted to encourage students, families and neighbors to read all summer with the help of the little free library.

“Our parish, our school and all our neighboring communities are full of school-aged children,” said Lynn Frank, fifth-grade teacher at Sacred Heart. “We want to do our part to encourage reading and help all children develop a love for reading. Just another way for us to reach out and support reading and education in Rowan County.

“In addition, our parish has an enormous Hispanic ministry who are a big part of our church family and visit our school regularly. Our little free library gets books into their hands as well.”

Access to books can be a big deal. Academically, children growing up in homes without books are an average three years behind children in homes with a lot of books — even when controlled for other key factors such as income and parents’ education.

One of the most successful ways to improve the reading achievement of children is to increase their access to books, especially at home.

Little Free Library is a nonprofit organization designed to inspire a love of reading, build community and spark creativity by fostering neighborhood book exchanges around the world. Through little free libraries, millions of books are exchanged each year, increasing access to books for readers of all ages and backgrounds.

Lynn Frank, Jenn Dunn and Sacred Heart students helped paint the little library and fill it with children’s books.