paper craft

Jonnie B. Deel Memorial Library in Dickenson County is awarded a $500 Green Grant in the Recycling and Waste Reduction category as part of Keep Virginia Beautiful’s 15th Annual Green Grants program.    

Every year, government, non-profit, civic, and service organizations in Virginia are invited to apply for grants ranging from $500 to $1,000 that will help address an environmental concern in their community.  Grants must focus on one of the following priorities:   Litter Prevention, Recycling & Waste Reduction, Cigarette Litter Prevention & Recycling, or Community Beautification. 

The Jonnie B. Deel Memorial Library branch in Clintwood is part of the Lonesome Pine Regional Library system, which serves counties in Southwest Virginia.  The library’s mission is for children and adults to experience personal enrichment and connection with one another and had over 5,000 people attending library programs in recent years. 

Library books that are too worn or outdated to be useful are sometimes headed for the landfill.  But with Green Grant funds, books at the Jonnie B. Deel Memorial Library will be given new life as art projects. The library will offer activities that repurpose old novels by removing the pages, and using a rose-shaped die and leaf-shaped die to cut out shapes from the pages.  The shapes will be glued together to create paper roses and leaves that will be added to grapevine wreath forms.  The tips of the flowers are then painted, and the final result is a piece of home décor that will last for years.

Funds from the Green Grant will go to purchase a manual die cutter, grapevine wreaths, and other supplies to create art projects.  The library has a room for crafting and creating art that is a popular place for visitors.  This program will bring visitors to the library to enjoy an activity that will upcycle books in a useful and fun way!