A Colorado man took an old kitchen cabinet and some old books, and turned it into something that brought his neighborhood together.
It's called the little free library, and its founder says it reminds people about what's really important... neighbors.
Sometimes in the rush to get from point A to point B we drive right past what binds us together.
In a "rush-to-get-there" world , 76-year-old Paige Gaines sits and soaks it in.
“I can't think of a day when I don't read,” he says.
You name it, Paige has read it, and about a year ago he decided his neighbors should, too.
“I had about 15-20 books I was going to take to Goodwill,” he says.
But instead, he decided to build a library.
“I had an old kitchen cabinet down in the basement, I was redoing my wall, and I took out the railroad tie,” he says.
Put them all together - and you have the little free library. A lot of conversations start out around these books.
Pages - worn, weathered and well-read. Books that someone took - someone left and someone wants you to read.
“That's kind of the mystery of it,” he says.
Neighbors are brought together by something so simple as a book. Paper and ink shared by neighbors.
“I do like the idea of reading other books that neighbors may have read,” says Tenly Williams, who lives in the neighborhood.
And that's really what this little free library is about. In a world that sometimes moves too fast, an old book helps us slow down, and remember what it means to be a neighbor.
“It kinda creates a sense of community,” say Gaines.
