The board of the Friends of the Farmville/Prince Edward Community Library voted during its September meeting to donate $200 to little libraries affected by hurricanes Irma and Harvey. According to Vicky Page, vice-chair of the board, the organization will be accepting donations Oct. 13 and 14 for the Little Libraries Hurricane Fund at the Fall Book Sale at the Barbara Rose Johns Farmville-Prince Edward Community Library.

“Any monies that we collect for the Little Free Library Hurricane Fund will be added to ours and made as one collected donation,” Page said.

The sale will be held from 1-4 p.m. on Oct. 13 and 10 a.m.-1 p.m. on Oct. 14 in the reading room of the library.

Page said the Friends of the Library maintains five Little Free Libraries throughout the county. She said they’re located in Rice, Meherrin, Prospect, Worsham and Darlington Heights.

“Having only one library in the county, we decided several years ago to have a project to put the Little Free Libraries in the outlying areas of the county for the unserved and underserved citizens of the county,” Page said. “That program has proved so successful that we know the positive impact that Little Free Libraries have on citizens.”

She said the board made the decision to make the donation to the fund so that people affected by the hurricanes could have their Little Free Libraries restored.

“Just within our county there are seven,” Page said. “But there are literally thousands of them across the U.S.”

According to LittleFreeLibrary.org, as of 2017, there are more than 50,000 registered Little Free Libraries in all 50 states and 70 countries.

In Prince Edward, there are two Little Free Libraries not maintained by the Friends of Library. Page said one, located at Parkview Apartments, assists by providing books and other supplies and the other is privately owned in Farmville.