Bucerías, Mexico - The first Little Free Library in the area is set to open its doors in Bucerías on Thursday, June 28, thanks to the creativity and construction prowess of Jonathan Balas, 29, a staff member of the local eSun Energy office.

Balas had learned about Little Free Library from his parents, who built and installed theirs in the Waterfront Coffee Co., a coffee shop they own and operate in Edmonds, WA. They, in turn, had leaned about it from LittleFreeLibrary.org.

The Mission
• To promote literacy and the love of reading by building free book exchanges worldwide.
• To build a sense of community as we share skills, creativity, and wisdom across generations.
• To build more than 2,510 libraries around the world - more than Andrew Carnegie!

As soon as Balas’ parents put the Little Free Library in their café, they had people asking about the library and they were eager to start exchanging books.

Balas says the Little Free Library provides a central location for people to share literature, without cost. He says any type, language, or age group of book is welcomed. The "library system" is as simple as this: take a book, leave a book.

Locally, it all started with a phone call to Balas one day from his father in Washington, who mentioned, "It’s not always what the community can do for you as a business, but what can your business do to give back to the community."

That started Balas thinking how "cool would it be" for the new eSun office to sponsor a Little Free Library here in Mexico. His response was why not?

It didn't take long after that to get started on the project.

Balas’ employer, eSun Energy of Ajijic, MX, had just recently opened its first "satellite" office, located between Bucerias and Mezcales, to expand its solar electric sytem business into the Bahia de Banderas area.

With the permission of his boss, Jsun Mills (that’s how he spells his first name), the owner of the company, Balas began the task of building his prototype Library during some "downtime" at the office and after-hours.

With a construction background, Balas thought the eSun staff could muster up material in the company’s Bahia de Banderas warehouse to build a Little Free Library. That would fit well with eSun’s resource conservation mission, as well.

"Creativity is the key to innovation and we like to think of this project being just that," Balas says.

He estimates that nearly eighty-five percent of the library is made of recycled material. The exterior is coated with stucco to represent the traditional Mexican style home and the color yellow to represent the sun.

"Being we have sunshine almost every day of the year and eSun provides solar solutions here in Mexico, I figured it would be quite fitting," Balas explains.

It has been installed in Bucerias at Lázaro Cárdenas and Agustin Melgar in Cafe Lázaro, one of several sites he had in mind. Lazaro was chosen because Balas lives in the neighborhood and found it "relaxed." He knew that Lazaro was a relatively new café and he hoped that Little Free Library would help put it "on the map."

Join Balas and friends on June 28th at 7 pm for the Little Free Library Grand Opening. This is likely to be a library opening like no other. Bring books, friends, and smiles, and be ready to have a good time!

For more information, contact Balas at jbalas(at)esunenergy.com.