about the borrow box project
Hi Everyone,
I'm Frances and I started The Borrow Box Project back in 2023.
My parents taught me how to read before school and it's become a valuable skill for helping me with my imagination, communication and studies. My love of reading helped me become a national finalist in the Kids' Lit Quiz competition back a few years ago. I couldn't go to the finals that year because of Covid 19. While I was home from school, I read my books and it helped me to travel to different times and places all from the comfort of my chair. I read a lot over several lock-downs and it really helped me to stay happy during that difficult time.
Over the years, I built up a big collection of books, and I wondered what I could do with them all. I didn't want to sell them and wasn't going to throw them away either. I wanted to give back to my community and make a special place to share the books that I've grown out of. That is how the St James Borrow Box was born. It was named after the street I lived on at the time in Hamilton.
Initially I put the borrow box out in front of my house for families in my neighbourhood to use and enjoy no strings attached kids library concept. I was a little worried that the initial 35 books from my beloved collection would disappear, but to my delight, the collection grew and grew! Families would borrow and return books and donate some from their own collection for other families to read. I met lots of great people who came from way outside my neighbourhood to enjoy the little library in front of my house.
After running the little library for a few years now and seeing families coming to borrow and return books, it got me wonderiing if other kids might want to run their own Borrow Box. I've learnt a lot about how to do it, and I believe in my heart that all kids should have easy access to great reads across the nation. I also believe that there are other kids out there, like me, who want to be reader leaders in their towns. So now, with funding from the International Baccalaureate Global Youth Action Fund I can make the Borrow Box Project a nationwide initiative.
I have been busy designinig an easy to assemble flatpack kit mobile library and a setup kit to help selected reader leaders build there own borrow box. I want to guide, mentor and celebrate the achievements of kids across the country who want to run a little library just like me. I hope you'll join me as we go on this next phase together. I'll be giving lots of updates so stay tuned.
Frances
meet the founder
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Frances Gregory
Founder
The OG reader leader of the Borrow Box Project NZ.
Frances grew up in Hamilton and developed a love of reading from an early age. Her parents believed in the importance of reading as a key skill for success in life and taught her to read before five.
She was a NZ Kids' Lit Quiz Waikato regional finalist in 2020 and was a national finalist in 2021. Alas, she was unable to compete in the national finals in Wellington that year because the event was cancelled due to covid.
She decided to turn her love of reading into a force for good by founding the Borrow Box Project NZ as a charitable trust in 2025. She is passionate about the transformational powers and opportunities that strong literacy brings and is now seeking to grow a network of reader leaders like herself to bring great reads into their community.
Frances now lives in Auckland where she studies IB at the renowned St. Cuthbert's College. It is her aim to study medicine and become a doctor to help people. She believes her successes in study so far have their roots in her early mastery of reading.
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