The Toy, Game, and Puzzle Library

Background Statement

The Toy, Game, and Puzzle Library was founded in 2023 to encourage people to share their toys and play together. The library was inspired by a community toy library in New Zealand, by libraries throughout Germany that have book sections and board game sections that are equal sizes, and by Little Free Libraries that are dedicated to sharing jigsaw puzzles.

After early conversations about what such an endeavor could look like, a small group of us formed a board of directors, incorporated as a 501(c)3, and started looking for a space and for toys, games, and puzzles to fill it. We were so grateful to the Foothills Mall for offering us a storefront rent-free, and to our dear friend Kris Gould for donating 1,500 toys, games, and puzzles to get us started.

After four months of fixing up the space, going through all of the donations to get them ready for loaning out, developing policies for membership and loaning things, and designing a really impressive database to manage it all, we opened the Toy, Game, and Puzzle Library to the public on November 4, 2023.

A year in, we have an inventory of roughly 3,000 toys, games, and puzzles that are checked out regularly by our 1,000 member families. We have expanded our volunteer-run open hours to three days a week, and when we are open, we often have 10-25 people enjoying playing in the library while also returning and checking out items. We regularly take our toys and games out to community events, and have been told by many of our patrons that they feel like the TGP Library has become an integral part of the Fort Collins community.