Over the past decade, demand for volunteers has continued to rise. Many people don’t think about volunteering often, but it plays an important role in supporting communities and helping nonprofit organizations function. Volunteering also benefits students by providing service hours for graduation and making your college resumes stronger, all while making the places we live better.

In the month of January, my friend Jack Zipfel and I contributed to the volunteering effort by helping install Little Libraries Launch to Success Mika Henriksson a Little Library in his neighborhood cemetery. We did this project to give more access to books for families and to help draw more people to the cemetery, bringing the community together.

Little Libraries are small, weather resistant boxes where people can take a book, leave one, or both. They have become a simple but effective way to share books without cost. The new library was stocked with a lot of different types of books including children’s books, novels, and nonfiction books to serve a wide range of people.

Jack and I built a little library using a 4×4 piece of wood for the post, pole cementing foam to secure it in the ground, and a prebuilt kit for the library structure. The kit came with all the pieces to build the actual box except paint. We painted it white after putting it together to give it a more polished look and to make it easier to see.

Since its creation, our Little Library has been used by many people in the neighborhood, including families visiting the cemetery, children looking for books to read, and people who stop by during walks. Since the Little Library has been installed several books have been taken and replaced, showing us that the library is working as intended and making books more accessible to the community.

As volunteering becomes more important, projects like this show how students can support people while gaining experience and contributing to a stronger, more connected neighborhood.