Ripples Little Free Library, BookCrossing, and PostCrossing Programs

Hi everyone!

We’re really busy planning for the groundbreaking on our off-grid earthbag cottage. With Grey Treefrogs in the mailbox, my life is now complete. 🙂 But it gets even better because there are some really fun programs we haven’t told you about yet! I’m so excited to start participating in some great writing and reading-based programs that are fun, educational, and connect us to our global interdependence. You may have already heard of them, but if not, I’m happy to be the first one to tell you!

If you like receiving postcards from faraway places, PostCrossing is something we all can get started doing today! Send a postcard to anywhere in the world, receive a postcard from anywhere in the world: simple as that. I’ve signed up to share our adventures at Ripples, offering some educational tidbits on interesting animals, plants, and sustainable living techniques or fair trade products. In exchange, someone somewhere will be sending us postcards which we will make available for Ripples visitors to browse.  PostCrossing is free to participate, besides the cost of stamps.

Mason Klepp. Portland, OR. Mason is an 8th grader was inspired to make a Little Free Library on his spring break. After a trip to the local rebuilding center he worked with his parents to create a 100% recycled library. Source: Pinterest

Someday, Ripples will have a Little Free Library installed! Ours will have a rotating selection of books on making a difference, especially naturalist topics and field guides that visitors can use during Ripples workshops. We’ll also have pamphlets from awesome organizations doing cool stuff. In the years to come, I hope to offer free copies of books (including children’s books I’m currently working on) that we write or illustrate. A steward’s packet for registering our library and all the signage we need costs about $40, but we’ll have to build the little library ourselves and plan to do so – I hope you’ll join us when we put it together and paint it!

Part of this teenie library will be the BookCrossing program, which is basically a world-sized version of free libraries. Our creatively designed book labels will be made at Ripples and promote our online educational center resources, so that whoever finds our books will also find tools and stories to help them make a difference in a variety of ways that might appeal to them. You may want to release your own books into the wild or go hunting for one! I love doing that.

I hope to see you all soon either in the wilds of the internet or at our new location at the historic Johnson Pear Farm!

-Amanda (or Panda, as some call me)