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U. S. Peace Corps Volunteer Scott Hill teaching kindergarten
students at Balata Primary, on the island of St. Lucia,
about living with disabilities. Hill serves at St. Lucia's
Council of and for Persons with Disabilities.
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Get inspired! Make a difference!
Of all the amazing folks we've met since
starting Hands Across the Sea three years ago, U.S. Peace
Corps Volunteers are among the most inspiring. Hands is currently
working with 20 Peace Corps Volunteers sprinkled throughout
the Eastern Caribbean on the islands of Dominica, St. Kitts
and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and
Grenada. The work they're doing, from AIDS/HIV education to
counseling young people to raising
literacy levels to teaching special-needs
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U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer Alyssa Gaalema with two of
her students at St. Georges, on the island of Grenada.
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students, is making a huge difference
to the well-being of communities in remote island villages.
We found the Peace Corps Volunteers to be personable, caring,
highly educated, hardworking, and thoroughly professional-wonderfully
talented ambassadors of the United States. All of them have
told us that working in the Peace Corps has been their lifelong
dream, and they are thrilled to be living the dream. We at Hands
are gratified to be able to
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U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer Ann Crytser with students
from a before-school reading group at the St. Clair
Dacon Secondary School in the community of Carapan,
on the island of St. Vincent. The students arrive at
school at 7:30 a.m. to read books together. Four of
the five students above have read five books since the
activity start-up in February 2009. Book sets donated
by Hands Across the Sea will enable the group to continue
through the coming year.
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assist them in their work.
We asked each Peace Corps Volunteer
to assemble a Wish List of books and materials they need to
complete their service, whether they're founding a much-needed
library, starting an after-school program, or supporting pregnant
teenagers. Click here to find their Wish
Lists and you'll also find, in each Peace Corps
Volunteer's words, the illuminating background behind each
Wish List. We urge you to support these amazing folks by making
a cash donation
to Hands so that we can purchase "gently used" books
at library sales and also fulfill their resource requests.
By November, the Wish List items supporting 39 schools,
7,500 students, and eight community libraries/reading projects
in the Hands Caribbean
Literacy and School Support (CLASS) program
will be packed into a Tropical
Shipping
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The
temperature is rising! Thanks to generous Hands supporters,
the book side of our 50+50 Summer Donation Drive is
off to a flying start. Please help us balance the two
sides of our gauge with a cash gift!
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container and on their way to the Eastern Caribbean!
With summer in full swing, we are happy
to report that generous supporters are driving the Hands 50+50
Summer Donation Drive toward success. On the book front, Ann-Wallis
White, a charteryacht broker who has been helping island communities
for 35 years, recently donated a cargo van's worth (about
80 boxes) of books to shared Eastern Caribbean projects with
Hands. Our shining star at Lady Bug Bookstore, Connie MacSweeney,
purchased over 500 stellar books for Hands at a Scholastic
book sale. Connie also acquired and stored over 3,000 "gently
used" children's reading books generously donated by
Mrs. Sylvain of the Freetown Elementary School. Meanwhile,
Hands has been buying carloads of "gently used"
books at library sales (usually, 50 cents a book!) from Connecticut
to New Hampshire. The Hands "haul" 23,000
books and growing is being palletized and warehoused
by another Hands "angel": Matt Pollock of Harte-Hanks.
On the cash donation side, your contributions are allowing
Hands to buy the vital resources on everyone's Wish Lists
(click here
to make a cash donation) please keep the donations
coming. Have a great summer!
T.L. and Harriet
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