Falmouth Nub News aims to support our community, promoting shops, businesses, charities, clubs sports groups and more.

We will be profiling some of these businesses and organisations regularly in a feature called 'Up Close in Falmouth and Penryn'.

Today we met up with Edwin Love, one of the directors and founders of a new Penryn-based community project.

KLOTH, short for Kernow Library of Things, aims to provide a substantial resource to give the community access to things they either can't afford to own, don't have the room to keep or just wouldn't use very often.

"In a world heading for an environmental breakdown and often suffering from 'stuffocation', we are trying to find a way to help," Edwin told Nub News.

Daisy, Edwin, Fréa and Jenni, all residents of Falmouth and Penryn, began KLOTH back in 2017 when it was just a 'germ of an idea'.

The project really started to take off a year ago, when much needed seed funding came from the National Lottery Award.

"But progress has been slower than we hoped due to problems finding a suitable venue, proper insurance, software and banking, all of which were slowed down, to a lesser or greater extent by the Covid19 crisis," Edwin continued.

"We decided a while ago that rather than wait until things were perfect, which would involve a lot of fundraising in order to purchase high-quality things to lend out, it was more important to open as soon as possible and start to serve the local community."

Once KLOTH officially opens on Saturday (12th) they will be running Crowdfunder along with other planned fundraising activities.

This will allow the not-for-profit project to invest in some high-quality power tools and other useful items.

Members will be able to use the library's online service to browse the catalogue and reserve an item.

The model is heavily similar to that of the popular C.R.A.P (conserving resources associating people) page on Facebook.

Back in July, KLOTH secured the keys to "The Gentlemen's Hut" on Quay Hill in Penryn, which will be the main base for the library.

The launch will be a fairly subdued one due to social distancing, but a celebratory day nonetheless.

Edwin said: "We will not be having quite the party we would have hoped but rather an open weekend and chance to meet people and explain what we are all about."

Penryn Mayor, Chaz Wenmoth, and the rest of Penryn Town Council will be cutting the ribbon and declaring the library officially open.

Edwin added: "We will be there to meet people, show them around and talk to them about the library and how it will work.

"We will also be on hand to offer help in signing up to the website which will be crucial for running the library and hoping to talk to people about volunteering to help run the library.

"Unfortunately due to COVID19 restrictions we will not be offering any refreshments but there are some lovely cafes and pubs nearby. Local Samba band, Daka Doum, will be on hand to help us make some noise."

The launch of KLOTH is only the beginning of Edwin and the other founders' vision.

Edwin told us: "Long term we have a grand vision of a Cornwall wide network of libraries, each managed and run by its local community but working together to share resources, ideas and of course the things available to borrow, alongside this we want to have a mobile, van or bus-based service to allow us to reach people in more isolated communities."

Edwin wants to pay special thanks to Gareth Truscott at Omni-Build who is helping to prepare The Gentlemen's Hut and Bradfords Penryn, Jo Sawmills from Mabe and Pendennis Shipyard who have provided building materials.

"Along with many other generous donations from the people of Falmouth, Penryn and beyond," Edwin said.

Get down to the KLOTH launch this Saturday (12th) from 2pm - 5pm or on Sunday between 11am and 4pm.

You can keep up to date with everything KLOTH on their Facebook page.

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