Free lamps to fight winter blues coming to Edmonton library

The Stanley Milner Library will soon have three light therapy lamps to help people fight seasonal affective disorder, thanks to the efforts of an Edmonton man.

Robin Mazumder got the idea for the pilot project while looking for lamps for himself.

“I saw that they were pretty expensive,” he said. “And I started wondering about people who couldn't afford them and I thought that it might be a good idea to get a place where anybody could access them.

Mazumder named his project LightBrightYEG. Awesome Edmonton, a foundation that funds projects to improve life in the city, gave him a grant to put three lamps in the library.

This is ideal, Mazumder says, since people are supposed to sit in front of the lamps for half an hour a day without looking directly at them.

“So the library is a perfect environment because you can read a book," he said. "It's accessible to everybody."

The lamps should be in the library by the end of the month where anyone can use them for free.