In front of St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church on East Magnolia Ave., a book box resides with the intention of passersby either taking a book or leaving one — promoting literacy and allowing people the opportunity to let their used books be adopted and loved by a new owner.
Not long after its establishment in 2009, the Hudson Family Foundation installed 16 book boxes around Lee County as a part of their Rookie Reader Program, a reading initiative program aimed at promoting literacy in children and youth. Over the years, 17,075 books have been donated to the program.
Kim Hudson cofounded the non-profit foundation with her husband Tim Hudson, World Series champion and former Auburn baseball player. The couple met while attending Auburn University and now share a passion for serving communities around Lee County.
“It really is such a blessing to be able to be plugged into Lee County and the surrounding areas because we see things on a daily basis that we need to be aware of,” Kim said. “Once you learn about a need in the community, I believe it becomes your responsibility to fill it.”
Kim explained that their foundation saw a need for collecting books and distributing them, which then sparked the inspiration for book boxes.
The Hudson Family Foundation was not alone in its mission and received an outpouring of assistance from local homebuilders and citizens of Lee County. Although all of the miniature libraries are united in concept, each box differs in the creativity of its construction.
“I found that most people want to plug in and contribute to the community, but sometimes people just don’t know how or where,” Kim said. “This was one of those situations where we had a need for book boxes, but we couldn’t make them ourselves. When we started asking, we had so many people in the community who wanted to create them.”
Kim noted that she would love for people to get involved in any way they can, whether it be a financial donation, working with the foundation to build a new book box or simply donating their gently used or new books.
Contact information for the Hudson Family Foundation can be found on their website, which also contains information regarding their other programs, scholarship opportunities and a list of book box locations.
Auburn student Gabriel Fox works at Auburn Oil Co. Booksellers, which is located near the book box on East Magnolia. Fox appreciates seeing people curious about the book box and has even made contributions themself.
“I love coming out and seeing people stopping by," Fox said. “I think it’s a really cool way to get people engaged with the community and slow down and be mindful. [Auburn Oil Co. Booksellers] actually leave books from the store sometimes that come in damaged or other copies that have already come out.”
However, students would like to see more variety in the types of books being left in the book box downtown. Claire Beal, student at Auburn University, expressed conflicting feelings regarding the box’s content.
“I think it’s a really good idea, but not for a college town,” Beal said. “I wish people would leave more academic books or, like, classical literature.”
Kim welcomes anyone to keep or share the books placed in the book box, but requests that people reach out should they find potentially inappropriate content inside any of the boxes.
Although the East Magnolia book box has seemingly flipped the page on containing primarily children’s books, the Hudson Family Foundation’s miniature libraries remain a testament to the power of Auburn’s community and a love of literature — for all ages.
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