Wonderland BookSavers was established in 2012 by OHSers Madeline Langdon, Claire Langdon, and their friends Emma Langdon, and Brooks Barry. Wonderland BookSavers has grown from a summer bookclub to a 501(c)3 charity which donates books, shoes, and sports equipment locally, nationally, and internationally. To date, Wonderland BookSavers has donated over 60,000 books worldwide.
One of Wonderland BookSavers most recent projects was purchasing $1,099 worth of Haitian-Creole books for the schools and children they donate to in Haiti. This project began in the fall of 2015, when team Wonderland BookSavers was meeting with their community partner and the president of Haitian Education Initiative, Susan Whitcomb, PhD. Though the BookSavers had previously donated English and French books to Haiti, they learned that the literacy rates of the children were still low. Dr. Whitcomb expressed the need, stating, “The Haitian children learn Creole as their first language. Creole is a mixture of French, Spanish, English and African dialects. It only became a written language in 1979, so there are very few books written or translated into Creole. But it would be so important for early literacy if we could provide books in Creole. Currently children cannot even begin to learn to read until they have learned French, a foreign language.”
Haitian children with books donated by the Wonderland BookSavers
The Wonderland BookSavers decided they needed to get the Haitian-Creole books for the children, however they faced the obstacle of finding funds to purchase the books. Wonderland BookSavers does not operate on money, and usually the BookSavers collect their books from donations and book drives. Due to the scarcity of the Haitian-Creole books (Dr. Whitcomb and Wonderland BookSavers are only aware of one Creole publishing company) it was necessary to procure funds to purchase the Creole books.
Haitian-Creole books
The BookSavers decided to raise awareness about the issue, and their community partner, Zoe Barry, the founder and CEO of ZappRx, graciously donated her prize money which she won in the contest ONEin3, a contest sponsored by the mayor of Boston. In return for the donated funds, Wonderland BookSavers made a book donation to Tufts Floating Hospital for Children in Boston, and met with the ZappRx PR team while they were there. They also put ZappRx logos alongside the Wonderland BookSaver logos on the boxes of books they donated, and put ZappRx stickers inside each of the 2,000 books they donated on their visit. The books Wonderland BookSavers donated to Tufts Floating Hospital for Children are given to children after they visit the hospital.
A little girl selects one of the donated books at the hospital
Through their project, Wonderland BookSavers managed to raise awareness about the Haitian children’s educational needs, purchase Haitian-Creole books for the Haitian children, and donate books to children in Boston. For more information about this project, visit the following links: conta.cc/1R8wVMA http://wonderlandbooksavers.com/news-2/ http://wonderlandbooksavers.com/2015/12/30/there-is-no-frigate-like-a-book-to-take-us-to-boston/
For further information about their charity and other projects, you can visit http://wonderlandbooksavers.com
Written by Madeline Langdon
Categories: Community Service Showcase, School
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