Little Free Library

I'm gonna pick something really specific because, um, I love raising my kids here.

I have a nine-year-old and an 11-year-old, and specifically something that we love to do together is check out little free libraries all over Portland, and that is something that comes to the top of my mind because I feel like they're fun, but they also represent this culture that we have in Portland of sharing and community building, and whether it's, you know, going to find a little dinosaur toy or check out the Minifig, uh, Little Free Library or the mug library, uh, or poetry.

There are so many different ones all over.

It really does connect to, uh, this beautiful culture that we have in Portland, that we take care of each other and we support each other in many different ways.

Um, we, we had the same bag, and we kept saying the same thing at the same time, and we would just explode into giggles thinking like, "Are we just the same person?" Like, she's just so effortless to be around.

Um, and we spent the day driving around to little free libraries and dropping off books.

I think I brought, like, two big bags of books to get rid of, and she had, like, three bags in her car.

And I think we hit up, like, something, something ridiculous like 26 li- little free libraries in a day.

Um, it was a ton of fun just, you know, pulling them up on the map and, you know, driving four blocks and stopping off and dropping more books off and then getting back in the car and driving another few blocks.

Um, and it was really lovely.

Um, she's also lovely.

She was one of the other ones that was at the, um, the backyard meetup.

Like, we all live our lives.

Yeah, for my little free library, I went to...

Oh, God, I always forget the name.

I think it's...

It's incredible, but it's used mostly.

And then they have, like, dollar bins.

So I just, like, attacked the dollar bins for the Little Free Library.

Yes.

These are just everywhere.

If there's a Little Free Library that doesn't have one of these, I'd be surprised.

I know.

But you know what? We should make a national movement to put a J.D.

Robb naked in something.

Naked in the Little Free Library should be her next one.

and death.

How have you practiced generosity this week? Maybe you volunteered at a local charity or donated old clothes or toys.

Perhaps you left a book in a little free library or held the door open for a friend.

Tell us your generosity story and you could be featured on Lions and Legends.

Grown-ups, record a 30-second voice memo of your kiddo describing how they practiced generosity, then email the audio to info@lionsandlegends.org. Today's story, The Infinite Appetite, was adapted by me, Rebecca Sheir.

We've got some photographs.

There is a group standing in front of a, I believe they call it a little free library.

There's a Help Wanted sign below the box that is quite filled with books.

Also has a planter at its base.

When he was about 12 years old, Richard Kubinietz's brother Julian gave him four books for Christmas.

Between Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, a biography compilation called 20 Modern Americans, and The Sea Devil, The Adventures of Count Felix von Luckner, The Last Raider Under Sail, Richard Kubinietz had a whole world open before him, tales of luxury and adventure, of noble people who made history, and those who wreaked a little havoc but protected the innocent.

The Gift, a lifelong love of reading, is one he's decided to pass on to a new generation in the form of a little free library in the parking lot of Joe's Service Station at Amherst Street and Elmwood Avenue.

It was dedicated on August 31, 2026.

things being the way they

are right now and everything getting more expensive and everything getting harder like I don't want reading to become a luxury so I'm trying to keep you know little free libraries and stuff stocked and I've been taking stuff you know from the store whenever we get duplicates of things or like if we get something in and like, it doesn't move after, you know, a couple of months.

It's like, okay, well maybe, you know, it's not the best fit, whatever, trying to make space for things that people are interested in.

And so, you know, I've been taking stuff to the little free libraries and all of the stuff, but I can only visit so many, you know, there are only so many hours in a day.

So it's been really cool.

So whenever folks come in and they're like, hey I want to book for a little free library and you know then I just kind of asked kind of out of curiosity like hey where's it where's it gonna go and yeah people have been taking them to like Ellsworth and all over the place so it's been really cool to kind of keep keep spreading the the good karma as it were to be like okay people are bringing their books into us and then we're sharing them out you know like not just selling them so trying to to keep that goodwill flowing

started following them, and then I realized there are a few companies now doing that.

And so this little bear that I have on my kayak, I have a little free library at where I live and I put little stuffed animals in it at times.

So I will, maybe I'll find one here or there, rehab the thing.

And then I put it in a little free library for somebody to take for free.

And.

this little guy was left in my library by someone else because this is exchange.

Well, because there's the concept of a little free library is take something, bring something, right?

Right.

registry.

It says Little Free Library has an app and a map.

It says you can name your library.

Oh.

There's a thing

called Little Free Library.

Yeah.

Same sort of concept.