Tiny Library Raises Awareness of Mental Health Issues in the Treasure Valley

You may have seen them around town or even have them in your own neighborhood, we have one in ours and they’re adorable. They’re the tiny, free library set up outside of a home or business that has free books in it.

The concept is to take a book and leave a book, for free, and bring the community together through reading.

A Boise woman by the name of Merrick Macomber calls her tiny libraries Dragon Flybrary’s.

She started building them as a way to cope with her sisters' suicide, but the idea has taken off and making a big impact in the community.

The tiny library has a variety of children and adult books, just like all the others, but her flybrary is a conversation piece to start talking about the difficult concept of mental health.

Inside each Flybrary there is a stack of pamphlets that advocate and raise awareness for mental health issues. This is AMAZING! Personally dealing with mental health issues in our family right now, it hits home more than ever that we don't talk about mental health nearly as often as we talk about illnesses or diseases that we can see.

Please don't ever "brush off" someone's feelings as "not being real", just because you may not understand it or SEE it. There is a stigma attached to mental health that needs to be changed. We need to stop allowing the topic to get swept under a rug and ignored.

Merrick's mission started out small but has now been turned into a nonprofit with 17 Flybraries in the Treasure Valley, and several in Oregon, with more on the way to New Mexico and Kentucky.

I absolutely LOVE her way of thinking too. She said, “I like to say that the neighbor that is struggling may not always look for help, but that same neighbor might be looking for a book today,”.

To find out more, get your own Flybrary, or to donate books click HERE!

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