In April, the Plant City Times & Observer wrote about Blake Dunn, an area Boy Scout and Plant City High School student who had started his biggest undertaking to date: working on his Eagle Scout project.
Blake’s mission: to impact a small community in a big way through the construction of six cabinet-like libraries, which would be placed across town. They’re called Little Libraries, part of an international literacy project. Little Libraries provide free books throughout communities, allowing readers to take a book, bring it home to read then later return the same book or donate a book of their own.
Blake first heard about the project from local business owner Yvonne Fry. Blake, a lifelong bibliophile, immediately took to the idea.
What started as an Eagle Scout project quickly turned into a literacy initiative that received support from business owners, City of Plant City commissioners, nonprofit organizations, book lovers and local artists. Now completed, the entire community is able to benefit from Blake’s project.
Working Together
Last spring, Blake partnered with the Plant City Times & Observer to facilitate locations and artists for Little Libraries.
Blake and his father, Jeff Dunn, built the libraries out of wood and plexiglass with younger scouts. Each library took about six hours to complete. Building supplies were sponsored by Plant City residents.
After they were built, they were dropped off at the Plant City Times & Observer office on Alexander Street for artists to pick up to paint. Newspaper staff contacted interested artists. Local artists James Villa, Jessie Frier, Samantha Sun, Eric Barber and Juan Alvarez each took home five of the six libraries and decorated the libraries with literary themes: from poems and book characters to literary time machines.
The sixth little library was given to Rebecca Nipper, who collaborated on a beach theme with artist Natalie Simmons. A live painting of the library was done at The Art Gallery in Downtown Plant City.
The beach-themed library will be raffled off to a Plant City Times & Observer reader so it can be placed in a local neighborhood for all to enjoy.
Once the libraries were finished, it was up to the Plant City Times & Observer staff to find the perfect locations for the libraries. The goal was to put the libraries in places where they would benefit the highest number of people — both adults and kids. As locations were determined, Plant City residents donated their gently-used books to the library project.
Newspaper staff, along with Blake, took the project to the City of Plant City for permission to place two libraries on city property: the Robert W. Willaford Railroad Museum and the Martin Luther King Jr. Recreation Center. The final contracts are awaiting Commission approval, but the libraries will likely be operating at those locations by the start of fall.
In addition to the Railroad Museum and the Martin Luther King Jr. Recreation Center, the other three libraries can be found at the Plant City Times & Observer office on Alexander Street, the United Food Bank of Plant City on Alsobrook Street and the Plant City YMCA at YMCA Place.
Blake, now filling out the final leg of paperwork for his Eagle Scout project, is pleased with the final results .
“Having to go to Commission and speak was definitely a cool thing to do as a teenager,” Blake said. “There’s already people looking at them, which is cool. People will come up to me and say how great of a thing it is that I’m doing. A lot of people really like it.”
Fry, too, is pleased to see the project come to life.
“We’re so grateful to everybody that has been a part of it,” Fry said. “We hope people come and enjoy them.”
The libraries are yours to enjoy, Plant City. So take a book. Leave a book. But above all: read.
Read, read, read.
The Artists and Their Libraries
James Villa
Library location: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Recreation Center
James Villa is a Plant City-based artist who sets no limitations on the mediums he works with. His primary focus is to create art that resonates with the viewer, allowing the viewer to be taken into the world of the painting in front of them. These worlds vary from portraits
to animal paintings to landscapes and abstract ideas. His greatest personal achievements in his early art career include a large mural done for his church parish youth center and painting one of the free Little Libraries.
Eric Barber
Library location: United Food Bank of Plant City
Eric Barber is a self-taught artist who started drawing and painting at a young age. He is the president of the Art Lounge Gallery and Robert W. Willaford Railroad Museum and a full-time CSX employee. He enjoys trying new mediums and styles including acrylics, charcoal, watercolor pencil and oils. He is a goldsmith by
trade and journeyed under the late Bill Bryan. Barber has a commercial art background. He enjoys painting Celtic work, still life and experimenting with mid-century modern style art. He also enjoys photography and has a handmade jewelry line, Victorian Mayhem.
Rebecca Nipper
Library location: TBD; collaboration with Natalie Simmons
A self-taught artist, Rebecca Nipper has always lived a creative life. She enjoys sewing, making jewelry and baking. Eventually, she found painting and drawing as a way to express her love of the natural world. She hopes to show the fine line between nature and fantasy in her art. She is part of the Art Lounge Gallery in Plant City, where she leads live drawing classes.
Natalie Simmons
Library location: TBD; collaboration with Rebecca Nipper
Natalie Simmons was born in Brandon and raised in the Tennessee River Valley near the Appalachian
Mountains. She was inspired to create artwork at a young age by her father and her love of nature. During and after high school she studied ceramics, painting and jewelry crafting. In 2013, she opened her shop, Cicada Mountain, on Etsy. She relocated back to Florida in 2014.
Samantha Sun
Library location: Plant City Family YMCA
Samantha Sun moved to Plant City when she was 6 and graduated from Plant City High School in 2015. That
same year, she was crowned the Florida Strawberry Festival Queen. She attends the University of Florida and has shown at the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg.
“Painted on my library are images from childhood stories, symbols from the classics, influential contemporary novels and history,” Sun said. “Stories that inspire us, teach us and allow us to see the world through new eyes with endless possibilities. My hope is that with this library, people will be impacted by the stories they leave with and put in stories to share their messages with others.”
Jessica Frier
Library location: Robert W. Willaford Railroad Museum
Jessica Frier is a full-time mom, business owner of Blue Thumb Computer in downtown and self-taught artist. She has always drawn and sketched but was never able to conquer painting and color. She picked up painting again in 2015 and has begun to teach herself new techniques. Her mediums are mostly acrylic and ink. Her lyrics
paintings are some of her most popular, which are paintings on sheet music of songs that inspire her. The subjects of her art are usually animals and fish, but she is also working to learn portraits.
Juan Alvarez
Library location: Plant City Times & Observer
Juan Alvarez is a Miami native and designer specializing in package design, billboards, magazine layout and branding. His career began in 1990 at Elite Island Resorts, where he served as the lead designer for three major resorts in Antigua. He then worked as the art director for Metromedia Technologies for eight years. He has worked on billboard projects for Coke, Chevy, Miller, Pepsi, the NFL, Budweiser, Disney and many
Fortune 500 companies. He currently serves as the designer for In the Field Magazine. He also works as a Mac Genius at Brandon Town Center.
Contact Emily Topper at etopper@plantcityobserver.com.