During these hard times, it may be difficult for some to get something simple as new clothes, but a new local project called the “” is making sure that’s a little easier for those who need it.
“I delivered newspapers in the Long Lake area and I’ve seen these little free libraries everywhere,” said Caley Mehs of Kingsley. “People had them at their houses and businesses, and they all had their own little spin on them. I thought, ‘that is such a neat idea, and I’d really like to take it a little bit further and provide to the community a free resource of clothing’.”
That’s exactly what she did. Mehs came up with plans for a locker that would sit outside a local community center and offer free clothes to both adults and children.
“I really wanted it to be a blessing for the community,” Mehs said.
She came up with the idea two years ago, and reached out to several people about starting the project. That’s when Dave Gonyer of Gonyer Wood Concepts came to help her out this year.
“She came to me with some drawings, and we went back and forth with certain changes,” Gonyer said. “We ended up with a 4′ by 2′ locker. There’s a curtain rod in there, there’s room for totes on the bottom for coats and hats.”
Mehs wants to make this locker a year-round resource, eventually putting summer and fall clothes in the locker.
“It confirms that there is need that maybe not a lot of people want to talk about,” Mehs said. “And that’s the hope for this project is that people can come and they don’t have to fill out a form, they don’t have to talk to anybody. If they need something, come anytime.”
Mehs decided to put the first Love Locker outside the Fife Lake Public Library.
“What a great feeling to have somebody want to do this,” said Fife Lake Public Library Director Julie Kintner. “It just kind of fit being here. We kind of like to be the hub of the community, and I think it’s just a perfect fit to utilize it here.”
And the Fife Lake community really took to the project.
“Everybody in the community liked the Facebook page and just started coming together,” Gonyer said. “They’d ask ‘how can I help, where can I drop items off,’ so everybody starts kind of pitching in and wanting to help out any way they can.”
Mehs has big goals for the Love Locker Project, eventually taking it national.
“My short term goal is I would like to put four more up before spring in other local communities,” she said. “The long term goal is that people all over, even the country, would take the idea, build their own, and put one on their own community.”
Mehs is accepting new or like-new clothing for the lockers and asks to contact her through the Love Locker Facebook page or lovelockerproject@gmail.com for pickup or drop off. She asks that clothes are not dropped off at the Love Locker location.
Additionally, she is also raising money to build a new Love Locker for another community. You can donate through her , , or send checks to:
Love Locker Project
P.O. Box 33
Kingsley, MI 49649
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