BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — Terrace Avenue is home to a small library, catering to the reading needs of children in Old South Baton Rouge.
A small library that came to life through a grant given to Old South Baton Rouge Economic Redevelopment Group, says executive director of the nonprofit Britanny Marshall.
Books that cater to all types of children, especially Black children, said Marshall.
“They are able to see a likeness, a likeness of themselves in them,” Marshall said. “That is something that I believe is very important when it comes to children growing up learning and reading.”
But now for the second time, those books are gone, leaving the community uneased and saddened at the resources being taken away.
Marshall said the first time the books were robbed, they were replaced by community advocate Johnnie Domino, but now they are gone again.
“We had those books once again and about a week ago, someone once again stole all the books out of the library,” Marshall said.
Ja’Lani Stewart and Amayah Carter are kids who have been grabbing books, now they’re left with nothing.
“I’m so sad because someone took all the books,” said four-year old Amaya Carter.
Marshall said she doesn’t know who did it but is sure it wasn’t children.
Now she hopes to restock the library to continue using ways to help increase literacy rates in the community.
“When we have kids that are less fortunate, they can’t really afford to buy a snowball. If they read a book, we do a trade like you read the book, you come back and tell us what the book was about. We give you a card for a free snowball,” Marshall said.
Now she asks people to donate books and has a message for the person who stole them.
“I forgive you. And I just hope you put the books that you did take to good use,” Marshall said.
To donate books, you can drop them off inside the business, ‘4 on the Geaux,’ 1302 Terrace Ave. in Baton Rouge or call (225) 910-2029 to arrange a book pickup.
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