N.S. father and son share toys with community ‘car library’

The Hot Wheels Car Library encourages enthusiasts to take a car - or leave one!

A Cole Harbour, N.S., father and his four-year old son have built their own version of a community library, but instead of books, it’s filled with Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars.

Gerard Wttewaall says the idea came from something his wife and son saw online dedicated to Hot Wheels fans. Their son Arthur is described as a “motor head” who has collected dozens of toy cars, so they decided to give it a try.

“We’ve created a little community library, but instead of books, we’re using Hot Wheels and Matchbox die-cast cars,” said Wttewaall. “It allows our kids to get into the habit of sharing, and lets other kids take part in that as well.”

The father-and-son duo built the box from scratch, painting it together in a single day. Arthur chose the first 24 cars from his personal collection to stock the library.

Since it opened about three weeks ago, Wttewaall estimates close to 100 cars have been swapped.

While weekdays might see just a few visitors, he says weekends and holidays can bring up to a dozen people.

The variety of people using the car library has been a surprise – from young children with their parents to tradespeople arriving in work trucks to drop off donations.

Wttewaall says the library works on a simple ‘take one, leave one’ rule, though that can be a challenge for his son when multiple new cars appear at once.

“It’s still a little tough when five new cars show up the same day and he really wants all five,” said Wttewaall. “But he’s learning that other kids get to play with these, too.”

The project has drawn positive comments from neighbours and even strangers who’ve left cars while the family wasn’t home. Wttewaall said the response has been far more enthusiastic than he expected.

“We thought maybe a few children might come by every couple of days,” he said. “Now we see new vehicles in there almost every hour.”

While he has no plans to build another box, Wttewaall said he would gladly help anyone in the community who wants to start their own.

Arthur is enjoying his role as car librarian and checking the box each day to see what’s been added and deciding which of his own cars to put in for others.

“He’s loved it all along,” Wttewaall said. “Every day he’s excited to see what’s new and the kids that stop by to check them out.”

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