(Published in print edition June 28, 2023)
Henderson County middle-schooler Ellen Chaney has a quote from a famous author that she loves to use when she’s participating in pageant competitions and talking about her chosen community service project.
The quote is from Dr. Seuss and it goes like this: “The more that you read, the more things you will know.”
Ellen is walking that talk for children and youth in the Tri-State. She is making things to read— lots and lots of books — freely available.
She’s just installed her 10th Free Little Library. It’s located at the Henderson County Extension Office.
Ellen first became involved in setting up free libraries a few years ago through her interest in pageants. As part of pageant organizations’ missions, participants are often required to participate in a community service project.
“It’s to show how you can make a difference,” said Ellen’s mom Jamie Chaney, adding that it also provides a vehicle for pageant participants to get to know their community. “They can pick whatever they’re passionate about.”
The Chaney family had seen Free Little Libraries while traveling in other cities, so Ellen picked that for her community initiative.
“I like reading and I want others to enjoy books as much as I do,” she said when she was a third-grader, explaining her goal was “to make little kids smarter.”
Now a seventh-grader, Ellen also recently refreshed her very popular Free Little Library located at the accessible playground in downtown Henderson’s Central Park.
The other eight libraries she maintains are at The Perch in downtown Henderson, Floyd’s Grocery in Uniontown, More For Less Grocery in Morganfield, Morganfield City Hall, Mahr Park in Madisonville, Sebree, and AB Chandler Elementary School at Corydon (her former elementary school) in addition to a mobile unit.
Ellen said that about once a week when her family drives past these locations to run errands, go to the grocery, out to eat and to gymnastics or archery sessions “we check the books and fill them back up.”
They keep a box of books in their vehicle, and estimate that since this project began they’ve placed approximately 7,000 books. The materials come from donations, yard sales, people cleaning out home libraries and lots of other places.
“Our basement is a library,” Ellen said, describing the totes, boxes and bags of books that are waiting to be placed.
In true Little Library fashion, Ellen provides directions at the libraries about how book borrowers should return the book they want to read at some point or, if they really like it and want it for their own, replace it with a different one.
But some library locations work better than others with the concept of “leaving a book and taking a book.” With some, such as the box at Central Park, books go out quickly but few come back.
“Rarely do we have to add books to the location at The Perch,” she said.
Some of the library boxes are repurposed newspaper vending machines that have been painted and/or decorated with vinyl appliqués. But newspaper boxes have gotten harder to find, said Ellen’s mom, so they’re starting to go a different direction.
Boxes have been constructed by Ellen’s dad B.J. One of them has a Dr. Seuss theme. It features a Dr. Seuss hat fashioned from a piece of stovepipe. The library box at Chandler Elementary is styled as a little schoolhouse.
Most of her libraries focus on books for elementary-age readers, but the new location at the Extension Office has more chapter books and materials for older readers because of 4-H program participants at that location.
Ellen said a bonus while checking on libraries is visiting the parks where they are located. She is involved in gymnastics and likes using the park equipment to reinforce her training at BP Gymnastics with Coach Breasha Pruitt.
Because of gymnastics, archery, 4-H and other activities as she grows older, Ellen plans to reduce the amount of time she’s been spending on pageants, which have earned her such titles as Kentucky’s Young Miss, Pure International Miss Pre-Teen Stars & Stripes America and Miss Pre-Teen Henderson County.
Though she may be taking that break, she won’t stop working on Free Little Libraries.
“Once you start something you can’t stop it,” she said. “You can’t halfway do it.”
