The Montreal Children’s Library needs a new space to call home – Montreal | 24CA News

Canada
Published 20.05.2023
The Montreal Children’s Library needs a new space to call home – Montreal | 24CA News

The Montreal Children’s Library is a spot the place youngsters and households can learn and borrow books in each English and French, however it’s additionally a  place the place children can include — and generally with out — their mother and father to play, color, socialize and way more.

“It’s a safe space for the kids first and foremost,” stated Laurence Savage, head librarian. “Children come here. We hope that they read books, that’s our mission, and we try to ‘push’ it on them a bit, but they come here to hang out.”

The 1,600-square-foot library is situated inside a neighborhood centre in St. Michel, in a constructing owned by Montreal’s French college service centre, the Centre de companies scolaire de Montréal (CSSDM).

The library says it was knowledgeable late final 12 months that the constructing will quickly be become a college, and so it has to maneuver.

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“A lot of the kids who come here, they come here by foot, they come here by bike, so we really don’t want to have to move too far away,” stated Amanda Fritz, a longtime volunteer board member.

“But any possible space we found is way outside our budget, way more expensive than what we have here. And so we’re really just hitting a wall in finding a new home for the library.”

Established in 1929, the Montreal Children’s Library has laid roots in several weak areas of the town for practically 95 years.

It has been on this location for 20 years and on this neighbourhood for 75.

Children who come right here often say it’s greater than only a library.

“This library is like my second home,” stated 13-year-old Giuseppe Muzzone. “The atmosphere, the people — even the books are good.”

The library is a non-profit group that will get 80 per cent of its funding from personal donations, and the remainder from the City of Montreal.

Right now, it pays about $500 a month for lease, and so it wants to seek out one thing in that finances — and quick.

It needs to be out of the constructing by the tip of September.

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Click to play video: 'Largest donation in Montreal’s Côte Saint-Luc history funds Max Margles children’s library'

Largest donation in Montreal’s Côte Saint-Luc historical past funds Max Margles youngsters’s library


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