Reading at the Coligio del Carmen |
Ambiente Liste El Roble Readers |
Though clearly difficult to put a monetary value on these donations, we estimate that the resale value alone in Costa Rica would be in the area of $50,000.00 USD. Of course, the new book purchase value would be much greater. The great cost of books for Costa Rican Schools means that only the most important books for learning can be purchased. Novels, picture books etc are very much a secondary concern to having sufficient pens and paper, rulers etc. Sadly this is resulting in a culture-wide loss of the love for reading.
With the kind assistance of an expat Canadian with close ties to the Women's Club of Costa Rica, and a local teacher, as well as the employees of Hotel La Rosa de America, we have been able to organize, sort into appropriate age groups, source deserving schools, and deliver over 3,500 books so far in English, French and Spanish as well as large numbers of school supplies. Some of the benefit schools, statistics and pictures can be found on our website page devoted to the project: BOOK DONATIONSMany of the schools we have donated to now have large numbers of books in English. To ensure that these donations are best used and distributed, we have volunteered to host the Women's Club at Hotel La Rosa and to potentially team up with this organization in order to expand the current scope of the program.
The Women's Club of Costa Rica has deep roots throughout Costa Rica, especially in the local schools and we believe that their experience with Costa Rican schools combined with books from Hotel La Rosa's Donation Program will lead to targeted donations that will provide the greatest benefit for Costa Rican children. The Mission Statement of the WCCR is "a philanthropic organization supporting education, primarily through scholarships and development of school libraries for children in Costa Rica."
To this end, our San Jose Airport Hotel will be hosting the next planning meeting of the Woman's Club of Costa Rica on the 26th of October 2011. For Hotel La Rosa, this will be a charity event with all Hotel services donated for the event. During this meeting, Hotel Staff will introduce the "La Rosa" book donation project. We hope to continue our donation project and develop our new link with the Women's Club.
Again, thank you all for your great support of our book donation program, and lets keep the books coming!!
Hotel Owner, Teacher and Principal |
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