On Friday, Project Promise donated $750 to the Lockhart School Elementary School’s library. Resa O’Reilly, Project Promise founder and president, made the presentation along with Project Promise Caterpillar student Vianca Medina during a trip to St. Thomas last week. Medina has been on a book tour across the territory to promote her book, “Dream a Dream,” and read to students in different schools; it was during the last leg of the tour when O’Reilly presented the check.
“Project Promise remains committed to enhancing the quality of education for students in the territory, and we are extremely thrilled to assist the Lockhart Elementary School provide additional resources for their students with our donation to their library,” said O’Reilly.
Lockhart School librarian Merle Vanterpool was very grateful and said the students will benefit greatly from the donation. “This gift will help in the promoting of literacy amongst our future leaders as it provides our students equal access to resources and inspire a lifetime of learning,” said Vanterpool.
According to Vanterpool, the monies will be used to purchase magazine subscriptions for publications such as Highlights, Ranger Rick, Click and Sports Illustrated for Kids, which will encourage the students to visit the library more often. The funds will also be used to purchase robots that teach hands-on coding skills, which is another tool to motivate students to visit the library regularly.
Proceeds from the donation came from Project Promise’s 2018 Havana Nights fundraiser. After hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017, O’Reilly pledged to donate ten percent of the proceeds to one school on St. Thomas and one school on St. Croix. Lew Muckle Elementary was selected as the school on St. Croix. During the St. Thomas trip, Medina also donated several books to all three Little Free Library locations on the island.
