Over the Spring ’26 semester, UL SOAD (School Of Architecture & Design) students designed a series of Little Libraries in a competition sponsored by ReadingWithKids.org, a project of the Acadiana Educational Endowment (AEE). The winners were announced Tuesday, March 2nd, and were presented awards on May 8, 2026 at the School’s annual event.
The winners are:
- Caleb Brown (Home Port)
- Cory Desormeaux (Dream House)
- Therese Guerin (Alpaca Ride)
- Ashlynn Rider (A Lamp to Read By)
- Sadie Sloan (Gear Up)
- Trace Taylor (Windows to Learning).
All of the winners are third year architecture students.
The AEE solicited gift certificates for the 6 winners. Certificates were donated by:
- Buttermilk Sky Pies, for a year’s worth of pies
- Cité des Arts, for tickets to one of their live performances
- Coin & Treasure, for store merchandise
- CuGino Restaurant, for food & drink
- Legends (any of their 9 locations) for food & drink
- Renaissance Market & Brasserie, for food or store merchandise.
The AEE is working to install Little Libraries around Acadiana, particularly in local Book Deserts, which represent a nation-wide problem in which there may be as few as 1 book for every 300 children. Lafayette’s main Book Desert is located north of US 90, and east of the Evangeline Throughway.
Installed Little Libraries will be registered with the Little Free Library program, an international project to distribute books through grassroots efforts, by installing Little Libraries in neighborhoods where residents can take and give books.
