Wausau’s ‘Book Lady’ aims to give out 1,000 books by the end of the summer

WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAW) - Shannon Goebel hopes to keep every ‘Little Free Library’ stocked through August.

She was given more than 600 books when Hawthorn Hills Elementary School closed down after this past school year. Goebel has been regularly dishing them out to 15 of these libraries in Wausau.

“I’ve been called the book lady many times and I love that. With each box that I drop off, I put my contact information and say, ‘whenever you need more, let me know,’” Goebel said. “My daughter and I, every week we ride around a route and make sure all the libraries are stocked.“

She originally wanted some to stock the library she maintains in her front yard, but was surprised by the sheer amount available from the shuttered school.

“I was approached by a woman named Heather from Hawthorn Hills and she said we have a couple books here if you want to come get them,” Goebel said. “So, I went to Hawthorn Hills and she’s like, ‘actually we have boxes and boxes, hundreds of books.”

Since then, she’s used her Facebook page and word-of-mouth to add more to her book stash on her front porch. She also goes to garage sales and thrift stores to accumulate them.

“We saved the books from going into the dumpster,” she said.

Her husband, Breydan Goebel, said he was surprised by the books at first, but quickly joined her mission. He said he is “the muscle” to carry all the boxes, and helps her organize the books.

“She’s always an adventure. She’s always coming up with something new that she wants to do, but it’s usually something that helps benefit other people,” Breydan said.

Goebel said that she has a solid rotation of libraries that are registered with Little Free Library, but donates to ones that are not, too.

“I have been dropping off boxes of 30-40 chapter books at different libraries around the community,” she said.