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Leaving a Mark: Library sponsors community project for kids, adults
Journal Photo by Jennifer Rotenizer
Lillian Dutrow, 8, and her brother, James, 6, show what they drew for the Leave Your Mark Community Book Project.
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Published: August 24, 2009
Even though Lillian and James Dutrow's ages aren't yet into double digits, their work can already be found on the shelves of the Forsyth County Public Library.
No need to feel envious.
You, too, can get your and your family's art and words onto the library shelves.
With the Leave Your Mark Community Book Project, all you have to do is go down to the Central Library on Fifth Street and check out -- say, Things That Sparkle.
Take home the book (which started out blank), flip through to see what other people have done, find a space and wax creative about things that sparkle for a page or two. People are welcome to draw, write poetry, add photographs or stickers, paint or make a journal entry.
"I thought it was the coolest idea," Jenna Dutrow said.
So far, her children Lillian -- who is 8½ and loves gymnastics and wants to grow up to be a designer -- and James -- who is 6 -- have drawn pictures in My Family and Earth.
"We've had fun playing with it," Dutrow said.
A big part of the fun has been looking at what everyone else has done, she said. "I like that it's a really broad age range and abilities."
"I think it's a way of everybody putting their fingerprint on the community," said Nan La Rosee, a librarian in the children's department. "It's a way of peeking into other people's minds. Everybody is going to have a completely different interpretation."
Officially, each book is assigned to one of three categories. There are 12 books for children in the Children's Department, four for teens in Teen Central and 11 for adults in the Humanities Department.
People of any age are welcome to check out a book from any department, though, and people of different ages are welcome to work on the same book.
People are asked to stick with the theme of a book and to be respectful of other people's work. Otherwise, they are welcome to do what they would like.
"We tried to keep it simple," said Audra Eagle, the librarian in the North Carolina Room who suggested the project.
Other book titles include The Ocean, Food, Love, Winston-Salem, Dreams and Reading.
"You can do as many as you want," Eagle said.
Eagle got the idea from the Portsmouth Central Library, a library in Great Britain doing something similar.
The Earth book got a jump on the other books with an appearance at an Earth Day celebration in April. It and the rest of the books went on the library shelves in June. The project is open-ended. As books fill up, they will be replaced with new blank books, and, later, branches may start having their own books. As it is, books in the series can be sent to the branches for people who don't want to come downtown to pick one up.
People can also check out Leave Your Mark books at BookMarks: Winston-Salem's Festival of Books, that will take place Sept. 12 on Trade Street. Eagle and other librarians will be there with some of the books.
Leave Your Mark is for everyone.
"We really want the spectrum of experience in them," La Rosee said.
■ Kim Underwood can be reached at 727-7389 or at kunderwood@wsjournal.com.
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