On April 24, over 1000 books changed hands at a community book swap hosted by student organization Page One Literacy. Open to both students and community members, many brought a book to share. Others brought tote bags filled with them. Situated on Proctor Terrace, the event included a craft table, where children were encouraged to make bookmarks, and volunteers on the Proctor lawn were reading to passing children.
According to Jude Kuykendall ’28, co-president of Page One Literacy, the event serves as a way to bridge the gap between the student body and the Middlebury community.
“The book swap started as a way to connect with students, and then also people around town and children from the schools were going to, and have those two communities come together,” Kuykendall said in an interview with The Campus.
“I think it just arises out of a love of books and a love of reading and wanting to share that with the community,” Co-President of Page One Katrina Schwarz ’26 said. “Page One is a great conduit for that because that's the club's mission already, to foster this love of literacy and reading in local elementary schoolers. If we can kind of push the boundaries on how we can do that within the community, it's great, and the bookswap is a way to do that.”
This year, the event drew dozens of students and over 35 community members, young and old alike.
“It was the most successful book swap we had yet, at least in my opinion,” Schwarz said.
Starting in the spring of 2025, the first Community Book Swap only had two folding tables and fewer books. They collaborated with Otter Creek Bookstore to source the majority of their books. Last week, Page One had eight tables filled with books and five different community organizations who donated.
“Otter Creek Used Books donated things, New England Review donated a very large amount, a few hundred books. Vermont Bookshop had a lot of advanced readers’ copies and damaged books that they donated, which was really sweet of them, and Davis Library donated some. And the rest came from students,” Kuykendall said.
For the first time this year, the organization included crafts for children to do, setting out materials to decorate colorful bookmarks, along with asking volunteers to be there to read to them. Very few children came to the reading or craft sessions.
“Something that was different this time is we planned to have books and crafts available for kids that were coming by, as well as reading sessions,” Schwarz said. “Was that successful? Not quite. But it was a good idea and a good start, and in the future. I think it'll be a good kick-off point.”
Kuykendall put significant effort into drawing out members from the community and hopes the event will grow in future years.
“The day was a success because we had Jude put a lot of effort into marketing the event,” Schwarz said. “He wanted the word out that the book swap was happening.”
Knowing there was no risk of running out of books, Kuykendall used his community connections to market the event. From getting an article published in the Addison Independent to featuring the event in the Mary Hogan school newsletter for families, the Community Book Swap was widely promoted to encourage attendance.
“We're inviting people that might not have opportunities to get a book, rather than just wealthy retirees around town,” Kuykendall said.
“When I frame it in advertising, it's always ‘town-wide book swap,’ rather than Middlebury College Book Swap, even though it is on campus,” Kuykendall said. “And I think the retirees group, they don't have a divide between the college on the hill and town life, but lower-income students and various populations aren't represented that much at Middlebury. There’s still a gap, so I want to bridge that as much as I can.”
Though the event was primarily attended by students, many town residents hiked up to Proctor Terrace to exchange books.
“Lots of community members who came and had all these donations, and were so excited,” Schwarz said. “We heard so many times, ‘Thank you so much for doing this,’ ‘Great idea,’ which meant a lot as a club who puts effort into organizing events — having positive feedback is great.”
“At the end, there was a mom who came with her son riding bikes. And we had closed up a little bit early because the traffic was really winding down. It was 15 minutes before the event was supposed to end. We were packing everything up in boxes. And she comes, and she was like, ‘Oh my gosh! I thought this was for another 15 minutes. Can we swap some books?’”
The volunteers pulled out the boxes of children’s books, opened them up, and did one more swap.
Editor’s Note: Katrina Schwarz ’26 is the Senior Local Editor at The Campus.
Rachelle Talbert '28 (she/her) is a News Editor.
Rachelle previously served as a copy editor. She is an English major with an intended minor in Art History. Outside of writing, she volunteers with Page One Literacy and experiments with visual and fiber arts.
