A newly opened teen facility at the Gibsons Public Library earned immediate approval from its target demographic. Youthful participants from the library’s summertime Comic Camp crowded into the renovated lounge at the moment of its inauguration on July 26.
“This place,” said a patron surveying shelves stacked with young adult fiction and manga novels, “is every kid’s dream.”
The project was funded by the Gibsons and District Library Foundation. In 2023, the non-profit organization received a bequest from longtime Gibsons resident Joe Peters. A portion of Peters’s legacy was used to amass the approximately $30,000 necessary to reconstruct, furnish and equip the space.
“Libraries were special to him and he wanted to be able to support libraries into the future,” said foundation chair Elaine Jackson. “We thought this was a way of doing that because there aren’t a lot of places for teens in Gibsons.”
In addition to books curated by the library’s child and youth services coordinator Pippa Rogers, the teen lounge includes a supple sofa, bean bag chairs, and a wood-grained homework desk. Art supplies, games, and charging units for electronics will be added in the weeks ahead.
“Our library is constantly evolving to meet the aspirations and needs of our community, and we have wanted to create a welcoming, comfortable place for youth for many years,” said library director Heather Evans-Cullen. “I am thrilled that young people have such a lovely free space to relax, socialize, create and study.”