By Madeline
Early last fall, we met with our community partner Susy Whitcomb, President of Haitian Educational Initiatives. Susy brought us pictures and videos of the kids at their school with our books. We had previously donated many French books to Haiti, but upon meeting with Susy, we discovered that the children in Haiti speak Haitian-Creole–not French–as their first language.
A Haitian child with one of our donated French books
The French books were helpful, but before the Haitian children could learn to read, they would have to learn French, a foreign language. Team Wonderland BookSavers decided that we wanted to get the Haitian children Haitian-Creole books so they could finally have books written in their native language.
Haitian-Creole books
After collaborating with our community partner Zoe Barry, the founder and CEO of ZappRx, we were able to obtain funds to purchase $1,099 worth of Haitian-Creole books. Since Zoe was so generous in giving us the funds to purchase the Haitian-Creole books, we along with the ZappRx team donated 2,000 books to the Reach Out and Read program at Tufts Floating Hospital for Children in Boston.
Throughout this project, we have united American children with Haitian children through our “poster pals” program. Poster pals are essentially pen pals, except we exchange and create banners with notes and drawings instead of just letters.
Kids work on one of the poster pals we sent to Haiti
Wonderland BookSavers held a community event at the Barnum School where we helped the kids decorate a Sneetch machine after we read “The Sneetches” by Dr. Seuss. At that event, we read a Haitian-Creole book to the children at Barnum School, and let the kids create banners for the children in Haiti.
Soon, the children at Barnum School will get a poster pals banner from the children in Haiti. Our Haitian-Creole books and poster pals were scheduled to arrive in Haiti in February, but due to a political coup and violence in Haiti, our books and poster pals were delayed in being delivered until May. On May 17, the children in Haiti received the first books they have ever seen written in their native language, and posters and drawings from us and American children.
children in Haiti holding our donated books
We are incredibly grateful to Susy Whitcomb and Zoe Barry for their assistance in this project. We are excited to see the children with their new books, and we are eagerly anticipating the poster pals which the Haitian children are sending back to America.
Ida read a few chapters from her first book from her series, Big News!, and after reading two chapters, Ida held a question-and-answer session where we and other children were able to ask about her writing process, her inspiration for the books, and how her career as a reporter helped in creating the story.
Lastly, Ida held a book-signing, and we got signed copies of Ida’s book Big News! This event was both informational and inspiring, and we gleaned firsthand knowledge about news reporting and book publishing.
Today, 5/9/16, we visited Emily G. Wetherbee school in Massachusetts. We are thrilled with their generosity. Francine, writing coach and head of community service said, “We’re trying to teach our students, here, to give to others. I work in a community where the kids get 100% free lunch and they get a lot of free services; it is a community of poverty and yet, we try to teach them that it doesn’t matter; you can still give to others. This is one way for students to share with other people.” Francine’s words reflect our mission, the greatest gift is giving.
A 4th grade class helped us load the car with all the boxes that were donated. They were all very nice. Joshua was very good at carrying and organizing the boxes, Denise was so nice for holding the door open for those carrying boxes, otherwise we would have been locked out. Cameron, Adrian, Brady, Ninio, and Jose were very strong and able to carry the boxes to and into the car. Cameron, Joshua, Denise, Adrian, and Brady were also very good at answering some of our questions.
Before we left, Francine wanted to give us more things to share with the children in Zimbabwe. She found a huge box of sticky foam letters and pictures and a huge stack of sombreros! We had a great time talking to the children and collecting the books. We hope to go back again if they want to collect some more books for us!
Team Wonderland BookSavers is grateful for the books Greens Farms Academy has donated to us, and we will use these books to continue fulfilling our mission of promoting global literacy.
In the weeks leading up to the event, I eagerly planned and constructed my costume. I used a bed sheet for my toga. For my lighting bolt, I used a paper towel roll covered in aluminum foil. Then, I put yellow zigzags on the bolt. Next, I put electric pens inside the lightning bolt so I could shock all of my friends.
On my shield was a picture of me dressed as Medusa. Zeus had a shield with Medusa on the front because to use as protection. Medusa was a young mortal girl and Poseidon took her to the temple of Athena and they fell in love at the foot of Athens’s statue. Athena thought up a horrible curse and turned Medusa in to a monster who could turn people to stone. After getting dressed in our classroom, we proceeded to the balcony of our lunchroom.
Our parents had decorated it to resemble Roman palace. We were served chicken legs, ham, Caesar salad, bread, and various desserts including a Roman Coliseum cake.
After dessert, we paraded in the lunchroom and threw out gold coins to the younger children. The Roman feast was my favorite highlight of the school year. It was culmination of all of the studying and readings we did such as The Iliad, The Odyssey, Greek myths, and studying Greek and Roman wars. In addition, I have read several of the Percy Jackson books including Greek Gods and Greek Heroes. Even though these myths were written almost 3,000 years ago they still have relevance today.
They are fun to read because the Gods have many exciting powers such as flying, immortality, the ability to morph into different shapes and sizes, and the magical weapons they can use. Also, the myths exaggerate mortal battles, which entices the reader to want more. The themes of morality are still applicable today which is why I highly recommend that you to read these wonderful ancient writings.
Wonderland BookSavers 