Mar6

sleds.

Posted on by
Standard

Community partners bring 1st “Free Sled Library” to Battle Creek.

Jeremy Andrews was enjoying a January vacation with his wife, Erin. The couple, co-owners of Penetrator Events, had just finished rafting along the Sturgeon River when they stumbled upon a unique feature at a local park: a shed with numerous sleds pouring out of it, the words “Sled Library” plastered on the side.

Now, with the help of some community partners, Andrews has brought the concept to the Cereal City, (Battle Creek is the home of Kellog’s Cereal), unveiling the first Free Sled Library, where patrons “borrow a sled, leave a sled,” at Leila Arboretum.

Kids took full advantage of the newly installed sled library Feb. 12 as hundreds poured into the 72-acre park for the annual “Festivus” cardboard sled race.

Steep hills combined with formidable ice claimed at least four of the plastic sleds available for kids that afternoon, but Andrews isn’t deterred. “As long as people donate, I’ll just keep buying sleds,” he said. “The idea is really cool and we’re happy with it.” Andrews has garnered more than $600 in donations since floating the idea out to friends on social media Feb. 2. A second sled library is planned and will debut next winter given the recent warmer temperatures.

Heidi LaGrow, a graphic communications technology instructor at Calhoun Area Career Center, was one of the first people to offer Andrews a helping hand with the project after reading his post on Facebook.

67 responses »

  7. That’s such a cool idea. I know this from Vienna but regarding clothes for homeless people. There are coat racks positioned at several places in town during winter. You can just add clothes and those who need them can take them for free.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

  9. I am always inspired by a story told about an unselfish act done for others and with no thought of oneself. Those big cities need to take some lessons from the small-town communities on how to bring residents together in a way that will form positive bonds!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

  10. How very cool! I love the spirit behind this initiative. I found the end interesting, no one would have asked this question about the little book library…if you take a book and not return it, or not put another on in its stead, it would not be considered stealing. That’s the whole idea.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

  22. What makes the story even better is to learn how others have contributed to the original idea. It sounds like these are all plastic sleds, but the actual event in February was for cardboard sleds, right?

    I’m thinking of my childhood where we used waxed cardboard in the summer and sleds and toboggans in the winter on the same hill.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

    • yes, i love that the community joined in. yes, it was a cardboard sled day, and that was their target date to have it up and running. we used to sled on trash bags as well as cardboard. when in australia, i saw the kids sledding on grassy hills on cardboard too

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply ↓

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s