A trip to the Geauga County Safety Center can be a negative or traumatic experience for children.
They often come for court-ordered custody exchanges, to visit a parent in jail or to accompany a parent making a police report.
But thanks to a partnership with A Chance for Children Foundation, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that strives to empower at-risk children by providing the opportunities to set goals and the tools to achieve them, and the Geauga County Library Foundation, a small library has opened inside the Geauga County Safety Center where children can pick up free books to take home.
“It’s another way to bridge the gap between the community and law enforcement,” Geauga County Sheriff Dan McClelland said.
“When you walk in here, this is not a pretty place,” said Tracy Jordan, victim advocate at the sheriff’s office and the driving force behind the Geauga County Sheriff’s Office Little Free Library project.
She also explained when she would into places like the grocery story, in her uniform, parents often tell their children to behave or they will be arrested.
“I hated that kids were being taught to be afraid of law enforcement,” she said.
So, this summer, Jordan began to research A Chance for Children Little Free Library with the sister of the Los Angeles-based designer and builder of the libraries, Douglas Chadwick.
Chadwick grew up in Madison and went to Madison High School. His sister works in the area. Since November 2013, he has built 21 of the custom-made free libraries — 18 of which are located in police stations throughout Los Angeles — that are designed to promote literacy and the love of reading by building free book exchanges.
Jordan met Chadwick when one of the libraries was placed inside Family Pride of Northeast Ohio, a Chardon-based non-profit agency that provides in-home behavioral health counseling and supportive services.
She wanted to surprise the sheriff, so when he was on vacation she got permission from Chief Deputy Scott Hildenbrand to pursue the project.
Jordan then met with Geauga County Public Library Director Deborah O’Connor and asked her for books to stock the free library shelves.
O’Connor, who also is a member of the library foundation board, told Jordan she wanted to go even farther with the project. She approached the library foundation, which agreed to fund the entire library.
“When you’re here, it’s not always for the best reason when you’re a kid,” O’Connor said, describing the safety center as a scary and sterile environment. “If you could have a book of your own to take home, maybe when you leave, that memory is a good one, not a bad one.”
The word spread among all county library branches to pull books, particularly children’s books, that were scheduled to be replaced.
All the friends of the library groups also collected children’s books from their used book sales.
“So for months, they’ve been gathering in our building down the road to be brought over here,” O’Connor said.
She added, “Our long-term commitment is, we will continue to check the supply closet, in the back, and if we find there are not enough for little kids, if there are not enough teen books or whatever, we’ll just keep replenishing.”
McClelland also will be taught how to do a story time or two, O’Connor added, so when he has some extra time he could read children in the lobby a favorite story.
“It’s just to kind of take the sting out of being here and to have a long-term memory,” said O’Connor, adding research shows the more children are read to when they are young, they get more and deeper groves in their brains that make it easier for them to read, learn and study.
Said O’Connor, “We really believe that readers are leaders.”
Every one of Chadwick’s hand-built libraries has a theme. He has built a castle, a lifeguard tower, houses, the Hollywood sign and even a stagecoach.
“Every one is totally different. It’s custom made and that’s the basis of the Little Free Libraries,” he explained. “It’s something that’s hand-built, created for that particular environment and reflects the builder and the area it’s going in.”
Creativity is a key element because the libraries are designed to draw children’s attention, inspire them and make them think and dream about “fun things,” Chadwick added.
“It’s community spirit, it’s getting the kids not afraid of the police,” said Chadwick. “It’s not a bad place to come anymore.”
The sheriff’s office chose the theme “Midge’s Doghouse” to pay tribute to McClelland and his K-9 partner, Midge.
Fifteen people helped build the custom library over a four-day period, Nov. 21-24. It has two shelves in front and two inside a storage area in back. In total, the library can hold more than 600 books at a time.
“There sheriff’s office actually is the first law enforcement office to have one this side of the Mississippi,” boasted Jordan. “And I really hope that it will grow, because I think that this is such a huge concept.”
Little Free Library: How it Began
Chadwick explained two men partnered to create Little Free Library in 2009, after the mother — who was a librarian — of one of men passed away.
“To honor her, they started a little box of books out in front of their house and said take a book, leave a book,” he said, adding since then more than 20,000 libraries worldwide have been registered on the Little Free Library website.
Last year, Chadwick said he and his wife were having drinks with a Los Angeles police officer and the chairman of the A Chance for Children Foundation.
Chadwick told the group he wanted to place a Little Free Library box in front of his home and the police officer, who was in charge of his department’s cadet program, thought it would be a good project for the cadets to get involved in as stewards of these libraries.
A little box was placed in front of the police station and the project “grew and grew and grew,” until one of the captains said he wanted a box in the station lobby.
“So, without even asking permission of the chief of police, he (captain) said he’d rather ask for forgiveness than permission. We built one and put it in the lobby,” Chadwick said.
The rest is history.