Social media is up in arms after an outdoor book exchange near Ron Brent Elementary was burned down.
The incident is now being investigated by the Prince George RCMP as a result after it was vandalized.
According to police, an officer saw the book exchange burning as of 3 AM this morning but have limited information at this time.
The outdoor kiosk quickly became popular within the neighborhood.
“That little library is part of their community building it was an opportunity for kids and their families to come and grab a book and read it as a family if they liked it they could keep or grab another and the school took great pride in that little library,” says Tim Bennett, School District 57 Board Chair.
A fire like this kind of puts a sour note on the summer as many of the students would brush up on their reading and would either use the exchange on 17th Avenue or head to a Prince George Public Library branch.
“As we head into summer, I know that the library inside the school is very well used by the students and while they will quite often make the trip down to the PGPL this gave them access and the ability to swap out books in their own neighborhood.”
Hannah Posselt lives in the neighborhood where the book exchange was located and is crushed by the incident.
“I walk my dog there every single morning and have lived there since 2005 and I take a lot of pride in that area and always defend it and then as I was walking by this morning I saw the dog sniffing the burnt books and it felt like somebody punched me in the gut. It was kind of heartbreaking.”
Posselt was looking forward to seeing people use the book exchange this summer.
“It really had that warm fuzzy feeling because kids need to read more and that neighborhood gets a bad wrap.”
“It’s like everything people say about the neighborhood and the people there might turn out to be true even though I don’t want to believe it. I generally try to live as positively as possible but when somebody does that it’s hard to be positive and it’s hard to defend the people of the neighborhood when somebody burns an adorable little book exchange down.”
Posselt says there is talk already of rebuilding the kiosk on social media and she would be willing to contribute financially if that happens.
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