Lubbock, Texas — The Weird Space partnered with an LGBTQ+ Family Discord and Happy Trash to bring a dumpster full of books to the Lubbock community.
Destiny Adams and Sam Gaitan with The Weird Space told EverythingLubbock.com they saw how upset people were, including themselves about a local business closing and throwing away all their books.
Adams and Gaitan said they saw how people were dumpster diving and knew there had to be a better way to go about it.
Adams and Gaitan said “it was unsafe. we were able to get a hold of the dumpster company to do it in a safe way.”
The Weird Space managed to get one dumpster full of books out of eight and wanted the community to enjoy them.
Adams and Gaitan brought the books under their pergola for people to grab for free.
An avid reader who was there getting a bundle of books, Sean Ellis, said she was upset about the books getting dumped.
Ellis said, “There’s a lot of kids there. They can’t even afford a dollar book. So why throw them away? There’s schools being built all the time. You set them outside, somebody else picked them up.”
But Adams and Gaitan believe that a book is so much more than pieces of paper put together.
“Stories have a way of shaping, you know, our values, our beliefs and everything,” said Adams. “They kind of shape what we love through music, through videos, DVD. I mean, all sorts of things are stories in itself.”
As Ellis said books provide a powerful thing, “Knowledge. It’s they learn to read. If they know how to read, then they can do better at their math. They can do better in school. They can do better information.”
The Weird Space owners said “We always like to put our best foot forward when it comes to our community. Sam and I were both born and raised here and we love Lubbock, and we always believe that if you can’t leave it, make it better. And so here we are holding true to that and making our community better.”
