Bright Red Bookshelves reopen throughout county

The Family Reading Partnership (FRP) recently announced the reopening of its Bright Red Bookshelves, coinciding with the celebration of its 25th anniversary this year. The program was closed for the past year and a half due to COVID-19 but reopened the week of July 6, and to celebrate, FRP has put together lists of family reading activities that are available at the shelves for families to take home.

The activities tie to another FRP program, its Story Walks, and to children’s authors Eric Carle and Lois Ehlert, whose recent deaths FRP wants to honor. More information about which bookshelves are open can be found at the FRP website, familyreading.org.

The Bright Red Bookshelves have been a part of FRP practically since its beginning 25 years ago, and ever since, FRP has collected gently used children’s books to place on shelves around the community for families to own. According to a recent press release, the books are collected in red crates set up at various community locations, as well as through book drives by various groups and businesses.

Beverly Wallenstein, program and outreach coordinator for FRP, said she’s glad to see the Bright Red Bookshelves return, as they are an important community resource.

“The Bright Red Bookshelf program circulates gently used children’s books back into the community, where they’re made available for free for families,” she said. “So, that’s really just a great opportunity for people to get books at places where they might not be able to. We have libraries, of course, but there’s some restrictions. You have to return the books. You have to be able to get to the library. So, the Bright Red Bookshelves offer a little bit of a children’s library in places that might not have a library close by and also allows you to keep the books.”

Wallenstein can speak to the Bookshelves’ impact personally as well since she grew up in the area and often visited them as a kid.

“Going to them as a kid and just being able to, I think, have a book, it felt like a gift to me,” she said. “It was like, ‘Ooh, I get to take this for free? I don’t have to bring it back or anything?’ And I remember doing that as a kid. So, it’s just so important — to have that feeling of having something that’s yours, as a kid, is just really wonderful. And it just is a really great program, I think, for both me as a kid and the rest of the community.”

The resumption of the Bright Red Bookshelves is part of FRP’s return to normalcy after a rough 2020. Wallenstein started her position at FRP during the pandemic and described what those first few months were like.

“When I came on, we were operating pretty much not at capacity,” she said. “We had to shut down the Bright Red Bookshelf program. We had to shut down a couple of other programs. … We really leaned into our Story Walk program because that’s outdoors and can be done on your time.”

FRP’s Story Walk program sets up book pages along walking trails throughout the county as an interactive, outdoor experience that adults and children can enjoy together. Book pages are laminated and mounted on posts, which are currently installed at Dotson Park in Danby, Memorial Park in Groton, the Jim Schug Trail in Dryden, Enfield Elementary School, Newfield Central School and the Lansing Center Trail.

While the Story Walks generally thrived, there were still plenty of losses. For one, FRP had to turn away many volunteers because there was no safe way to have them in the office. And FRP had to shut down its Traveling Books program, in which volunteers bring books out to local day cares to read to children.

Despite the setbacks, FRP used the pandemic as an opportunity to pivot and meet new needs. FRP created a new program, Bright Red Bookshelf To Go, where “we basically packaged up books and then tried to make them available for community members,” Wallenstein said.

“We tried to get out to different locations and give them out for free at grocery stores and things like that,” she said. “And we made them available to anybody who was also available to come grab them from us as well.”

Wallenstein said that FRP modified the Bright Red Bookshelf program because it’s a program many local families take advantage of.

“We really try to make books accessible to families who might not have books in their houses already or might not be aware of the benefits of reading,” she said. “So, we tried to get books out to people and get books into people’s hands rather than relying on people to come get books from a central location or anything. And I think people really appreciate how easy it is. And we try to make it as easy as possible for people to get access to books and to get access to information.”

This year has been better for FRP, allowing it to bring back volunteers and resume programs.

“Basically, all of the Bright Red Bookshelves that are able to be opened, we’re opening and have replaced all of the books and all of the signage so they look really bright, new and shiny, and they’ve got some awesome new books on them,” Wallenstein said. “We’re really excited to bring that program back.”

Some locations, particularly those on school grounds, are still shut down for now, but Wallenstein expects to see those bookshelves open up in the fall. FRP also expects to bring back its Traveling Books program within the next couple of months.

As for what lies beyond the next couple of months, Wallenstein said that FRP is hoping to build off of its experience during the pandemic to better serve the community for years to come.

“We’ve really been trying to focus in on what Family Reading Partnership means to the community, and also what our future means, given the internet and given how much things have changed in the last couple of years,” she said. “Especially with the last year with everything being online, we’ve really looked into, how do we grow and change in a way that makes sense and continues to grow with the world that changes? And I think that’s still a question that we’re answering. … It’s definitely going to be interesting to see where this organization goes.”

Learn more about FRP by visiting the previously mentioned website, calling (607) 277-8602 or emailing office@familyreading.org.