St. Petersburg couple sets up little libraries to promote literacy during pandemic

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Many Tampa Bay area public libraries remain closed to customers, due to concerns over COVID-19. That makes access to a good book difficult for a lot of people. 

Kristine and Michael Dowhan are trying to change that with something they call "St. Pete Shush". 

As part of the Little Free Library initiative, they have placed 28 little lending libraries throughout the city of St. Petersburg. 

It started with a small library in front of their house in Shore Acres. The Dowhan's had so many books they reached out to the Tampa Bay Times to see if they had any old newspaper boxes they could convert into libraries. They did and the couple went to work. 

"I posted in my local Facebook group and asked if anyone wanted to host a lending library,” Kristine Dowhan said. “Everyone saw how cool it was and wanted to jump in!"

After getting scraped, washed, sanded and painted, the Dowhan’s delivered the libraries to locations around town.

"We feel good to be able to spread literacy throughout St. Pete, and spread books throughout St. Pete, and spread a little bit of normalcy throughout St. Pete with all of the craziness going on right now," Kristine Dowhan said. 

To locate a Little Free Library, visit https://littlefreelibrary.org/.