Plant a Book - Sponsor a Teacher

January heralds that organizing time of year, cleaning out old files, preparing for income taxes. For those of us serving on the Board of Directors for Plant-a-Book International it means preparing and sending out donation receipts to our loyal donors. This has been keeping me busy over the last week. It's a job I couldn't love more because with every receipt I send out I think about how those donations have helped lay the groundwork for a brighter future for a child living in poverty.

We KNOW that education is CRITICAL for the kids living in extreme hardship. How else will they ever be able to pull themselves out of it?

Plant-a-Book International started a Teacher Sponsorship program in late 2009 at Galilee Primary School and Waddington High School in Nairobi, Kenya. We are very happy with the response but our goal for 2011 is to see many more teachers sponsored. Just think -- you are not only helping the school retain a valuable staff member by providing a stipend, but you are helping ALL the children in that classroom benefit from the consistency of a better qualified teacher! Some teacher sponsors take it a step further and send Plant-a-Book funds to purchase for classroom supplies, desks, textbookds or send a care package of pencils or toothbrushes -- in essence adopting the class. Now that sounds like FUN to me!

So pardon my plug for Plant-a-Book today but this is my PASSION. I became involved in child sponsorship and helping children living in poverty 9 years ago -- live it and breathe it. I've worked with Galilee Primary School and Waddington High School (where the teacher sponsorships are) for years, know the school director, have traveled to Kenya and visited the school. I've met the teachers and see the challenges they face, trying to teach large classrooms of students without enough textbooks and visual supports, no copy machines, sometimes not enough adequate desks.

The least we can do is offer these dedicated teachers our support! Think of how many children you will impact through this simple sponsorship (and it's only $45 per quarter -- just $15/month!).
Please visit our website www.plantabook.org and let me know if you have any questions. And please consider making a difference in the lives of children living in poverty this year.

Lifting the Blog Fog

Starting a blog is something I've been wanting to do for quite some time now. A place to write thoughts, record history as I travel through it, post some pictures -- and be able to reflect back on things that have impacted my life.

Why "Plant a Book"? Through the WH Memorial Plant-a-Book Project, my daughters and I have been able to plant books in the hands of impoverished children and foster a love of literacy. Wayne had loved books and gardening, so establishing this project was a way to remember him and do something to help others in his name. Wayne had his doctorate in psychology and saw good in every child he met. It seemed fitting that our daughters (who also love books) and I would carry on with planting a garden of books in his honor. Through his memorial Plant-a-Book project we have provided books to children attending Galilee Primary School in Kenya, Orphan Sponsorship International's orphanage library in Sri Lanka, and Candlelight School in Kenya. Fanuel, the Director of Galilee Primary School, named the school's library after my late husband -- a moving tribute.

Books have always been important to me. In the family album is a picture of me at age three, wearing a sagging diaper and studying an encyclopedia. I learned to read before I started school, and remember one hot summer in Southern California when my friend Carmen and I walked to the library every chance we could, lugging home stacks of mysteries and historical romances. To this day, I always need a book to turn to at day's end.

So begins my blog.... Turning the page on a new chapter.