Community Projects
Our mission is to promote and encourage literacy in our community. One way we do that is through various projects that span generations.
If you’re interested in learning more or supporting our growing list of community projects, we encourage you to send us an email or click on the donate button below. Every dollar collected will go toward creating a community that values a good book.
Pictured with Union Mayor Rodney Tappe are Community Literacy Foundation board members Julie Frankenberg, Dawn Kitchell, Diane Disbro and Valerie Jankowski.
Recognized as the “Best Read
Community in America”
APRIL 2021
The Union City Council made a proclamation Monday, April 12, 2021, recognizing the Greater Franklin County Area as the "Best Read Community in America." The Community Literacy Foundation organized the One More Page project in 2020 and over the next year readers logged more than 1.5 million pages!
Pictured left to right - Nicole Livell, Paula Hanson, representatives of Cedarcrest Manor, Drew Busekrus, Dan Busekrus, Luke Busekrus, Lesley Liesman, Dawn Kitchell, Julie Frankenberg, CLF board members, and Brittany Reed, Franklin County Area United Way
Community Literacy Foundation donates Little Free Libraries to local nursing homes
JANUARY 2021
Perhaps no group has suffered more through the COVID pandemic than nursing home residents. Locked inside and limited to visits with family members through windows, it has been an isolated year.
Lesley Liesman felt that these community members needed some normalcy – like the opportunity to visit a library and pick out a new book to read. Liesman, who serves as a volunteer board member for the Community Literacy Foundation, knew this was a good project for the Foundation, whose mission is to keep its community reading.
With enthusiastic support from the staffs at Grandview Healthcare Center and Cedarcrest Manor, the Community Literacy Foundation set to work creating a Little Free Library for the residents inside each of their facilities.
Local Boy Scout, Drew Busekrus, volunteered to build both little wooden libraries with help from his grandfather, Dan Busekrus of Warrenton. Drew is a 7th grader at Washington Middle School.
The Foundation applied for and received a Franklin County Area United Way Community Grant for the project. These grants give organizations the opportunity to improve the quality of life for the residents of the Franklin County area.
The Foundation is using the funds, along with money raised through its own fundraisers, to fill and maintain the Little Free Libraries with good books for the nursing home residents.
The Foundation board wants to ensure that the books going into the libraries are new releases and other quality titles — just like residents would have access to at their local libraries and bookstores
Lesley Liesman, CLF Board Member
This week they delivered 136 new books to the care centers to fill the Little Free Libraries for the first time. The Foundation will continue to provide new inventory until the nursing facilities are open to the public and families can add to the circulation. At that point, Liesman said, “the Community Literacy Foundation will register the Little Free Libraries and turn their care over to families and the public – the goal of the worldwide literacy project.”
