With Pride Month just around the corner, the Town of Milton is prepping some new features.
With the recently announced rainbow coloured crosswalks, there will also be rainbow coloured benches at the three Milton Public Library locations.
Chief Librarian for the MPL, Mark Williams, says the idea began with a simple goal.
He adds that they didn’t anticipate pride coloured benches right away, but the idea eventually evolved that way.
The Town of Milton will also be raising the Pride flag for the month of June.
While the flag will be raised for just the month, and rainbow crosswalks typically fade over time due to constant traffic, the benches at all three MPL locations will remain up year-round. Williams feels that this is a great thing for the community.
He notes that flag raisings will always be significant because they celebrate cultures and communities. He’s just happy that an ongoing commitment will be fulfilled by establishing these benches as a symbol of security and safety for the 2SLGBTQ+ community.
The benches will be put in at the Main branch, Sherwood branch, and Beatty branch. At the time of the interview with Williams, the exact locations for each bench was still being figured out. He says they’re trying to determine the best spots for each because they want to incorporate the spaces into a kind of outdoor reading garden. That way they will encourage reading outdoors, rather than just look out onto the parking lots.
No specific timeline was provided as they work to determine the perfect spots for the benches. Williams assures residents that they will be up by June.
If you’d like to follow along with the many activities that the Milton Public Library will be offering for Pride Month, you can visit their Program Calendar. Williams says they will be finding lots of unique and different ways to foster community involvement and inclusion for the month ahead, as well as the months to come.
