CLEVELAND — As we ask you to come alongside News 5 staff and donate to our annual childhood literacy campaign, If You Give a Child a Book, I'm also celebrating others in the community who champion the cause.
Like Keith Sulzer, a community liaison for the Cleveland Police Foundation and a retired Cleveland Police captain.
Sulzer spearheaded Little Free Libraries across the department, and there's one that's especially close to his heart.
It is a Little Free Library located at the Officer Derek Owens' Memorial Park in Cleveland, located at 10404 Parkview Avenue. It honors the life and legacy of the fallen police officer who was killed in the line of duty in 2008.
The site where Owens was shot has been cleared, and in its place now stands a neighborhood pocket park that includes a little free library.
"We decided to build a park," said Sulzer. "He was a family man. His parents were both teachers and we thought what better place for kids to learn about him, and the Little Free Library was build by the carpenters' union and the painters' union painted the library."
Sulzer said the park was built just for Derek, with his personality in mind and his love of helping others.
"In my years at Cleveland Police, we planted about 15 Little Free Libraries all over the city," said Sulzer. "Each district has a special library."
Sulzer said it's been about 10 years since the libraries were installed and they're still going strong.
"There's a direct link between literacy and incarceration," he said. "Cleveland is one of the poorest cities in the nation and one way we can dig ourselves out of this is through literacy and education."
Sulzer said that's one of the things that drove him to install the Little Free Libraries.
"A place for the kids to come read, hopefully, their parents are with them and that’s why we have these picnic tables and benches to sit here and read them a story and encourage them, make them understand that literacy, education is a way to change your life and to be successful," said Sulzer. "A couple great stories here and there might change the world, right?”
Sulzer mows the lawn and keeps up the park, and that it was a true community effort to make it a reality several years ago.
He said he has become good friends with many who live near the park and said he gets the books from the Cleveland Kids' Book Bank and from friends who know about the cause.
