Grand opening of Little Free Library in Tucson on
 Feb. 18 before the vandalization./Shannon Twilling

On March 21 in Tuscon, Arizona the local Girl Scout Troop 4’s Little Free Library project—where repurposed newspaper bins containing children’s books donated by local families and Bookmans stores are kept outside for people to borrow and leave books—was set afire by an unknown vandal. This particular Little Free Library is part of a larger global literacy movement with the same moniker Little Free Library, which has  had its profile raised in large part due to the vandalism that robbed local Girl Scout Troop 4 of its books. The public response to the vandalism has led to a steady stream of new donations to the Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona headquarters. Little Free Library’s basic existing principle is “take a book, return a book.” It is a concept that has proved successful since its inception in 2009. What began as a DIY project in a Wisconsin front yard, solely equipped with a “Free Books” sign, has spread to countries around the world from Iceland to Pakistan. SLJ spoke with Rick Brooks, co-founder and program director of Little Free Library, who shared that of the approximate 15,000 Little Free Libraries in existence, he has only heard of 15-20 incidents of a similar, tragic variety, many of which ended up being resolved in “an interesting and positive way.”

“We often find that the net positive effect of such incidents far outweighs the negative," says Brooks. "In case after case, more books are donated, libraries are rebuilt or repaired, and many more people become stakeholders in their success.”

A Little Free Library in Pima County where the vandalism took place./Courtesy of Arizona Daily Star

The President of the Arizona Library Association Ann Boles says, “As unfortunate as the acts of vandalism are, I think it did help raise awareness of Little Free Library and the importance of reading and the availability of books. Boles revealed that the President of the American Library Association Barbra Stripling had sent a letter to the Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona confirming that “they will be sending hundreds of dollars worth of new books donated by ALA members and staff to help replace what were burned.” This is not the first time this particular troop has encountered setbacks in their Samaritan work. Girls Scouts of Southern Arizona chief of staff Timalee Nevels reveals “the same group was the target of a cookie booth theft the previous year.” Leader of Girl Scout Troop 4 Shannon Twilling of the Daisy troop who'd set up the Little Free Libraries, tells SLJ that the initial reaction of the girls (ages 5-7) when seeing the melted dispensers involved a domino effect of tears, followed by fear and confusion.

The vandalized Little Free Library in Pima County./Shannon Twilling

According to Twilling, since the vandalism took place, support has ranged from local news coverage to words of encouragement across social media to donations based on word-of-mouth coming as far as New York. “I think everyone's feelings on the incident have changed a lot in the two weeks since it happened,” says Twilling. “[It] has helped me show the kids that for every mean-spirited person in this world, there are hundreds more kindhearted ones.” ______________________________________________ Sandy Chung is a former UN reporter on health sanitation and currently specializes in communications for architecture. Follow her on Twitter @sndychng.