Little Free Library Grand Opening in Bucerias Waterfront Coffee Company - EdmondsBeacon.com | |
go to original June 27, 2012 |
Steve Balas thanking "Paul" for bringing some books to the Little Free Library. |
The first Little Free Library in Mexico is set to open its doors in Bucerías on Thursday, June 28, thanks to the creativity and construction prowess of Jonathan Balas, 29, a staff member of the local eSun Energy office.
Jonathan is the former general manager at the Waterfront Coffee Company in Edmonds, Washington, and learned about the Little Free Library from his parents, Steve and Vickie Balas. They built and installed theirs at the Waterfront Coffee Company, a coffee shop they own and operate in Edmonds, WA. They, in turn, had learned about it from LittleFreeLibrary.org.
Actually, it all started with a phone call to Jonathan one day from his father in Washington, who mentioned, "It's not always what the community can do for you as a business, but what can your business do to give back to the community."
That started Jonathan thinking how "cool would it be" for the new eSun office to sponsor a Little Free Library here in Mexico. His response was "why not?"
Jonathan's employer, eSun Energy of Ajijic, MX, had just recently opened its first "satellite" office, located between Bucerias and Mezcales, to expand its solar electric system business into the Bahia de Banderas area.
With the permission of Jsun Mills, the owner of eSun Energy, Jonathan began the task of building his prototype Library during some "downtime" at the office and after-hours. It didn't take long after that to get started on the project.
With a construction background, Jonathan thought the eSun staff could muster up material in the company's Bahia de Banderas warehouse to build a Little Free Library. The construction should fit well with eSun's resource conservation mission, as well. "Creativity is the key to innovation and we like to think of this project being just that," Jonathan says.
He estimates that nearly eighty-five percent of the library is made of recycled material. The exterior is coated with stucco to represent the traditional Mexican style home and the color yellow to represent the sun. "Being we have sunshine almost every day of the year and eSun provides solar solutions here in Mexico, I figured it would be quite fitting," Jonathan explains.
It has been installed in Bucerias at Cafe Lázaro, one of several sites he had in mind. Cafe Lazaro was chosen because Jonathan lives in the neighborhood and found it "relaxed." He knew that Cafe Lazaro was a relatively new café and he hoped that Little Free Library would help put it "on the map."
Jonathan says the Little Free Library provides a central location for people to share literature, without cost. He says any type, language, or age group of book is welcomed. The "library system" is as simple as this: take a book, leave a book.
Jonathan, eSun and the Bucerias community will celebrate the grand opening of the Little Free Library at Cafe Lazaro on June 28 at 7:00 pm. You are invited to join the fun.
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