The Happyvale Share Hut is located on Happyvale Avenue across from Kobayashi Place in Brocklehurst.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED / Deborah Alore
July 20, 2020 - 7:00 AM
If you have extra books, seeds, vegetables or puzzles, you can now share them with the Kamloops community.
Inspired by the Lending Libraries idea she had seen in other communities, Brocklehurst resident Deborah Alore decided to create the Happyvale Share Hut.
"For quite some I’ve had this on my mind," she said. "But I don’t have any tools, I don’t really know how to build stuff."
The opportunity arose when her friends built a shed, and offered to build the sharing hut using their leftover building material.
"Originally I was thinking it would be a little lending library, but then I thought I don’t just want to stop with books," she said. "Often at this time of year, I’m a gardener, so I have surplus produce and in the past I’ve put things like extra zucchini out of the street… and it disappeared."
Locals can share anything that fits in the box, and produce can be left beside it.
"I decided to call it the Happyvale Share Hut, with the hopes that it would build community spirits, something I was seeing starting to build during the pandemic," Alore said. "Sometimes these crises that we go through provide an opportunity for good things to happen."
The Happyvale Share Hut is beside the Rivers Trail on Happyvale Avenue across from Kobayashi Place. Alore said since the pandemic began, she has noticed more people biking the trail, especially families with kids.
"It just gelled into the perfect opportunity," she said.
Alore completed the project a few days ago, and she has already noticed people stopping to check it out and sharing some books.
"It would be nice to see kids really utilizing it just to generate that sharing, be kind, community spirit thing for young people," she said.
She plans to keep it going year round, and in the winter sharing something new instead of seeds or produce.
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