Monday, June 25, 2012

Muchas Gracias Karen y Amigas




Over 5 years ago, Karen Hedrick, a retired teacher from San Diego and I chatted excitedly over a cup of coffee about our shared dream of creating a children's library for the community of Santiago Atitlan.  We both loved books and children and were inspired to share the gift of reading with the children of Santiago Atitlan.  Little did I know that our casual conversation would transform into La Puerta Abierta Children's Library.  Karen and I co-founded La Puerta Abierta in January of 2007.  Throughout the past five years, we've developed a center which hosts story hours, lends books, inspires creativity and critical thinking, brings book kits to rural communities, and serves our community as a safe and nurturing environment for Santiago youth. 

This past May, Karen organized a service oriented trip for 5 of her friends (Patti, Anne, Annie, Terri, Sharon and Lauri) from Spokane Washington.  The group spent one week volunteering in our center and surrounding schools.  During their stay in Santiago, the group taught violin classes, donated eye-glasses to the elders, shared felt story boards with our students, participated in a letter exchange between Guatemalan and US students, and worked in Tzanchaj school to teach music and voice lessons to the older students. 

In addition, Karen and friends organized a supply and book drive within their community and donated new books and materials to our center.

Muchas Gracias!

Saturday Mornings...




Saturday mornings at La Puerta Abierta are colorful, lively and fun.  Children as young as 1 and as old as five gather in our center for an hour of stories, music and creative play.  We've been collaborating with Sara, a talented Early Childhood Development Specialist comitted to living in Santiago for the duration of the year, who is helping us develop activities for our young students that are stimulating, engaging and age-appropriate.  While the children in our classes are our primary focus, we also aim to model simple learning activities that parents can observe during the class and later replicate within the home. 

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

A Special Delivery from Tidewater Community College

Our teachers are all smiles as they unpack the supplies delivered from Tidewater Community College.
Juanita, our talented story-teller shares one of the donated books from TCC with a group of attentive students.

In August of 2010, La Biblioteca Puerta Abierta received a wonderful gift.  As if fate had lead her to our front door, Carol Hodges, a librarian from Tidewater Community College stumbled upon our small children's library.  In a bustling village of moto-taxis, crowded stone buildings, zig-zagging streets with no signs, this truly was a small miracle.  When Carol entered our library, a local librarian was reading the last pages of a book to a young audience for a community story hour. During this brief encounter, Carol  was inspired by our mission to share the gift of reading and books with the students of Santiago Atitlan.

Upon arrival to Virginia, Carol was moved to create ways to support our programs and to connect the students and staff of Tidewater Community college with La Puerta Abierta.

TCC has organized two supply drives for our center.  Earlier this year, she teamed with  Kole Matheson, a TCC Adjunct English and ESL Professor and Library Specialist to lead an on campus book and material drive for La Puerta Abierta.  Our staff was overjoyed to receive a personally delivered suitcase stuffed with supplies and books for our library.  Carol  hand-picked many of the books herself at a Guadalajara book fair that she had attended in late 2011. 

La Puerta Abierta  remains immensely grateful for the serendipitous visit over two years ago which linked us with Carol and her library.  We are honored to have been taken under the wings of The Tidewater Community College Library as their sister library and have been touched by Carol's kindness and generosity.

Muchas Gracias Tidewater Community College!