Editorial: Reader to Reader Exports Hope with Books

Thursday, November 10, 2016
Daily Hampshire Gazette

Page by page, an Amherst nonprofit continues to fight educational inequality by shipping free books to disadvantaged communities.

But there is more to Reader to Reader than tons of paper. This novel program, founded by David Mazor more than a decade ago, exports hope.

Yes, hope, that thing with feathers, as Emily Dickinson once ventured. “That perches in the soul - / And sings the tune without the words - / And never stops - at all -”

While best known for its book donations, Reader to Reader works to advance literacy – and the economic hope literacy ignites – in impoverished communities beyond this country’s borders.

Mazor’s program also serves as a lifeline to intrepid students from the Five Colleges inspired to design and launch their own global literacy projects.

Books remain the coin of the realm. Starting late last month, Reader to Reader made its latest book donation to schools in Native American communities in the Southwest — one of its oldest efforts.

Schools in New Mexico and Arizona are receiving more than 52,000 books worth half a million dollars. The program’s simple goal is to get books into the hands of children in underfunded schools, believing that reading lights fires of curiosity that, once kindled, cannot be extinguished.

As Reader to Reader has grown, new corporate relationships enable it to get many more books into schools like the Gallup-McKinley County Public Schools in Gallup, New Mexico, and the Central Consolidated Schools in Shiprock, New Mexico. Both are receiving books in the latest shipment, along with the Ganado Unified School District in Ganado, Arizona, the Hopi School District in Keams Canyon, Arizona, and the Tuba City Unified School District in Tuba City, Arizona.

The program crossed the 50,000-volume mark on this donation thanks in part to its ties to the Scholastic Corp., Pioneer Valley Press, Soho Press and other publishers.

A library staffer in the Gallup-McKinley schools, which are getting 14,000 books, says the program’s impact on students will be “profound.”

Separately, more than 21,000 volumes are headed to the Navajo Nation Library in Window Rock, Arizona. Reader to Reader is also shipping books to a Native American community that’s been in the news – the Standing Rock Reservation, whose members are fighting a pipeline project and reached out to the Amherst program for help to improve the library at a South Dakota campus of Sitting Bull College.

Not surprisingly, there’s been mission creep in the Reader to Reader ranks for years. Students from local colleges continue to serve as tutors and reading mentors. Many do that here in the Valley, as several did with the Summer of Power program for five weeks this year in Holyoke by helping students improve their English language skills. The program says 200 Five Colleges students, working in Massachusetts and New Mexico, are mentoring 1,400 low-income young readers.

Further afield, Reader to Reader continues to assist efforts, sometimes through its Springboard Program, to advance literacy in places like Managua, Nicaragua, Arani, Bolivia, and Santa Cruz, Costa Rica. The Springboard Program helps college students do global good.

They include the four students from Amherst College who’ve been improving a three-room public library in the village of Santa Cruz.

Reader to Reader does seem like “the thing that never stops,” as Dickinson wrote.

In that same poem, she said of hope: “I’ve heard it in the chillest land - / And on the strangest Sea - / Yet - never - in Extremity, / It asked a crumb - of me.”

For information on how to support Reader to Reader’s efforts, and perhaps provide some financial crumbs, visit readertoreader.org.

College Students Chart New Path for Beyond el Campo Project

For the seventh straight year, Reader to Reader’s Beyond el Campo team is spending the summer in the village of Santa Cruz, Costa Rica, helping strengthen and support the village’s public library.

The team is made up of four Amherst College students, who spend their days working on the infrastructure of the library and running literacy programs for the village’s children and adults.

Among the first infrastructure tasks they tackled this summer was the building of a concrete path to the library, and painting the library’s exterior.

About Beyond el Campo

Founded in 2009, Beyond el Campo established and supports 3-room public library with over 3,000 books, a computer lab, and a space for teens. The library serves the immediate community of over 2,000 people. 

The college-student-led project provides educational programming, including book groups, summer reading camps and after-school study support.

Beyond el Campo, a project of Reader to Reader's Springboard Program, seeks to combat the issue of educational inequality in Costa Rica by providing essential tools and educational resources to inspire success. Its goals are to provide a public space that serves as a community center for learning and creative engagement; to equip that space with resources that connect students with their own passions and interests; and to offer educational programs and workshops open to the entire community.

Beyond el Campo Team Spends Summer in Costa Rica

This year’s Beyond el Campo team, Leonie Rauls, Melissa Martinez and Maria Vergara, arrived in Santa Cruz, Costa Rica, where they taught their first English class at the public library.

“We taught them the body parts and played an interactive game of putting note cards with the body parts on someone's body. Then we sang the Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes song to reinforce what they had learned. “

About Beyond el Campo

Beyond el Campo, a project of Reader to Reader's Springboard Program, seeks to combat the issue of educational inequality in Costa Rica by providing essential tools and educational resources to inspire success. Its goals are to provide a public space that serves as a community center for learning and creative engagement; to equip that space with resources that connect students with their own passions and interests; and to offer educational programs and workshops open to the entire community.

Pura Vida People

Summer intern Joel Campo shares his experiences working on project Beyond el Campo in Santa Cruz, Costa Rica.

I have now been in Santa Cruz de Leon Cortes, Costa Rica for two weeks and it has been great. Since being here, Cheyenne, Lexie and I have taught English lessons to children and adults, and have also been working on constructing a new computer room for the public library. Teaching and constructing the computer room is going really well and is a very rewarding experience. We hope to finish the computer room soon so that it may be useful to the people of Santa Cruz. Also, Cheyenne, Lexie, and I have many things planned for upcoming weeks and we are excited to see how everything works out!

However, although teaching, constructing the computer room, and planning new projects are a large part of the great experience I am having, one thing that has really impacted me is some of the great people I have met here in Santa Cruz. My host mom, Ana Navarro, happens to be one of these great people. Ana makes clothes for a living and has a nice shop at the front of the house, and also works with the local government. Ana has two sons, Cesar (19) and Miguel (21). One thing that has stood out to me about her is that she seems to be able to talk to anyone. Ana and I have discussed many topics since I’ve arrived in Santa Cruz. We have talked about the experiences she has had hosting volunteers over the years and I realized that a few years ago she hosted Caitlin Scudder, the founder of the Beyond El Campo initiative. Caitlin and Ana’s family remain friends to this day. Ana and I also talked about her experiences visiting the United States. Coincidentally, she spent time in my home state (New Jersey) and worked in Elizabeth for a few months, which was the city where my father worked for many years. Speaking of fathers, I should also mention that Ana and I have spent time discussing a topic that is difficult for the both of us—the passing of our fathers in November of 2012. This was the first year in my life that I didn’t spend Father’s day with my family; but I am glad that I have felt comfortable enough to talk to Ana and her family about our similar experiences. I am very grateful to have landed in this host family and out of the many people I have met here in Santa Cruz, Ana is largely responsible for the amazing time I am having.

Another person I have met and made good friends with is a young man named Adonay (18). I met Adonay because he is currently renting a room at Ana’s house. He has supported himself for the past two years and his weekly schedule is one that is difficult for me to imagine. He wakes up every morning during the week at 4:30am to go to work on a farm, and he finishes working around 2:00pm. Then, he borrows a friend’s motorcycle to go take classes at the high school he attends about a half hour away. He usually does not return back to Ana’s house until 9:30pm during the week. I grew up in a small middle-class city in New Jersey so I haven’t been exposed to many situations like Adonay’s, but as hard as Adonay’s situation may be, his thirst for knowledge has pleasantly surprised me. Whenever he and I have free time, he asks me to practice English with him and I of course am more than happy to oblige. He told me he hopes to one day go to college in the United States and become a doctor. I told him to keep working and to never give up.

Another person who has really inspired me during my time here is an elderly woman named Gillermina. Last week, Adonay and I went on a walk (which is more similar to a hike here in Santa Cruz) to Gillermina’s house so that he could introduce us. Gillermina is a highly respected woman here in Santa Cruz and I was fortunate enough to talk to her about her life for a few hours. She is 64 years old and in 2007 she published a collection of beautiful poems, many of which have to do with her experiences here in Santa Cruz. Her inspiration to publish the book of poems came after she had been on her deathbed for many months while battling stomach cancer for six years. She won the battle, and is now fully cured and walks around with a beautiful, welcoming smile.  She also has a great voice and I was happy to hear her read a few poems and sing a few songs that she had written. While I was at her home she even read a poem that is dedicated to the volunteers that come to work in Santa Cruz every year. Meeting Gillermina is something I will never forget. I plan to bring her book of poems back home so that I can give it to my grandmother as a gift.

Our goals coming here were to create equal educational opportunities through teaching English and to provide new resources for the public library. But as you can see, in this post I decided to focus less on what we have been doing and more on the great people I have interacted with here in Santa Cruz. I feel what we are doing in this community is very important but creating relationships with the people here is just as crucial. I look forward to continue working with Cheyenne and Lexie (and now Andrew, who is a high school student that just arrived today!) because they are all awesome, hardworking people and we are all on the same page about what we want to accomplish in time we have here. I am very excited to be on this team and I am just as excited to establish relationships with more great people in this community.

Finally, the Costa Rican national team is playing great in the World Cup and their performance has given the Santa Cruz community and the Beyond El Campo interns one more reason to smile! GO TICOS!

Pura Vida,


Joel Campo

I ha

In a land without an army

Beyond el Campo summer intern Cheyenne Pritchard shares her experiences living in Santa Cruz, Costa Rica.

I am in a land without an army and with coffee that does not need sugar. A honk is a friendly hello and unlike many students at Amherst, people walk with a bright smile and shout across the mountain, “buenas.” The sun is well in the sky before 6:00 AM, making for a much longer workday, and the voices of men in the fields can be heard from my backyard patio. The best way to describe this land is free. Although in some places mountains create a sense of barrier, here they remind me of the vast potential of our being. To say the people here are great would do them injustice, they are pure, and like the country motto suggests, my family truly lives una pura vida: a calm life led by the ability to let go of all they cannot control.

For example, this past Saturday I woke up with an extreme pain in my right arch. I looked down, finding a red area the circumference of a tennis ball and a red line following the path of a large vein. Past experience led me to quickly and quite frantically conclude that I had a Staph Infection. Despite my ability to usually communicate in Spanish, I could hardly form words due to my fear. My host mother, Nuria, calmly sat me down and tried to understand what was happening. Within the next hour, I was paying for antibiotics and heading back to Santa Cruz with our program director Sergio by my side. Although this was all quite stressful to me, I witnessed many acts of pura vida. First, every person I passed either in car or foot honked or waved. In the clinic, which included a small waiting area and one office, there was an aura of peace and understanding that one could not find in the impatient and pristine waiting rooms of the U.S. The doctor spoke slowly and said, “tranquila,” or “be calm” as soon as I sat down. When I returned to Santa Cruz, families I passed asked how I was doing, offered their phone to call home, and provided a warmth and friendly state of being that is utterly contagious. Thus far, my foot “trauma” has been the only imperfection of my trip and led me to a greater understanding of how the people of Santa Cruz work through life: with calmness, attentiveness, and an abundance of love.

This past week has been filled with computer room construction and many English classes. Monday through Friday, we teach English classes for “los niños,” ages 4-6. Right now we are working on basic introductions, colors, and today we made smiley-face puppets to introduce emotions and feelings. We pass many of the children in our classes throughout the day, and it is a joy to hear them say, “hello” or “see you” without being prompted. In addition, we started holding English classes for adults on Mondays and Wednesdays. Unlike my experience in America learning Spanish, there is little or no exposure to the English language in Santa Cruz, making it extremely challenging for the adults to form sounds and enunciate certain words. Regardless, they are making progress and in return are great Spanish teachers. Finally, every Monday, Tuesday, and Friday we head to the elementary school to work with first and fourth graders. The English teacher is very welcoming and open to any of our ideas and was happy to give us complete control over certain classes. More than anything, he was excited for his students to hear native English speakers.

Although re-doing the computer table created some problems and gave Lexie an allergic reaction, we are close to finishing the large and newly painted wooden table. The room has new windows and a beautifully constructed wooden door. This week we are painting the walls light blue with a green trim. The people of Santa Cruz are generously helping and community members living nearby have done a good deal of the construction. In a moment of creative genius, we decided to use the old books lying around the library to make a foot cushion and two small chairs. Made out of old books, two belts, a homemade wooden block, and cushions, we are doing our best to create stylish and resourceful chairs. Not to mention, we momentarily threatened the peaceful state of Costa Rica during our vicious fight against the giant spiders and cockroaches hiding within the boxes filled with old books. Yikes!

Within our first and very busy week, we managed to squeeze in a weekend trip to Jaco beach, about four hours away. Although the sun was hiding for most of the day, all three of us had a blast playing soccer with the locals and sharing chips and guacamole at a restaurant alongside the beach. The waves were big enough for surfers; so big, in fact, that while I was riding a horse in a small circle (go my touristy self), a wave crashed on the shore far enough to reach our bags. Sadly, I lost my phone, IPod, and had to buy a dress for the remainder of our trip due to the power of one wave. Nonetheless, the day was filled with four goals scored by your one-and-only, though Lexie would say the other team let me score (maybe that part is true), delicious ice cream, and a stunning bus ride back.

I have yet to unravel all of life here in Santa Cruz, and I doubt I will be able to before my eight weeks are over. What more could I want? As a girl who moves quickly through her day with practices, classes and other appointments in The United States, there have been very few, if any, things as rewarding as these first eight days. I can only hope that through my genuine excitement to teach the beautifully complicated English language and my desire to share my joy of reading that I will be able to return some piece of what they have already given me here in Santa Cruz.

As they say here, Ciao!

Duo to lead Beyond el Campo Project in Costa Rica

Amherst College students  Alexandra Barber and Cheyenne Pritchard will be spending their summer in the village of Santa Cruz de Leon Cortes, Costa Rica, as the leaders of the Beyond el Campo Project.

The duo will supervise a group of college students that will be doing a wide variety of literacy projects.

Now in its fifth year, Beyond el Campo established and supports 3-room public library with over 3,000 books, and provides educational programming, including book groups, summer reading camps and after-school study support.

The library serves the immediate community of over 2,000 people. 

Beyond el Campo, a project of Reader to Reader's Springboard Program, seeks to combat the issue of educational inequality in Costa Rica by providing essential tools and educational resources to inspire success. Its goals are to provide a public space that serves as a community center for learning and creative engagement; to equip that space with resources that connect students with their own passions and interests; and to offer educational programs and workshops open to the entire community.

Caitlin Scudder and Students Heads to Costa Rica in Support of Beyond el Campo Project

Caitlin Scudder, founder of Reader to Reader's Beyond el Campo project and former reading mentor, is heading back to Costa Rica with students from the Spanish class she teaches at The Academy at Charlemont.

Caitlin will bring 12 students and 3 chaperones on a trip to visit the public library she established in the coffee-farming village of Santa Cruz.  The group will contribute books and funds to help sustain the library.

Originally established as a 1-room library with 500 books, the library has grown to 3 rooms housing almost 3,000 books thanks to twice-annual visits by Amherst College and Reid College students as well as other volunteers. The service trips are supervised by Reader to Reader.

Thanks to the energy and passion of these volunteers, the library has also added computers, Wi-Fi, summer-long literacy programs, and reading groups, and is an important community social space.

One of Reader to Reader's priorities this year is to expand the number of young adult level books, and Caitlin is bringing down books we have given her that include Spanish-language editions of The Hunger Games series, and other popular young adult novels.

We are so pleased that Caitlin is still helping this much-needed community library thrive, and wish her and her students un buen viaje!

Beyond el Campo, a project of Reader to Reader's Springboard Program, seeks to combat the issue of educational inequality in Costa Rica by providing essential tools and educational resources to inspire success. Its goals are to provide a public space that serves as a community center for learning and creative engagement; to equip that space with resources that connect students with their own passions and interests; and to offer educational programs and workshops open to the entire community.

Costa Rica Library Has New Home

(Reader to Reader's Beyond el Campo project in Costa Rica is hard at work expanding the library they built in the coffee farming village of Santa Cruz. Here is the most recent report)

Espero que toda vaya bien en los Estados Unidos-- I hope that all is going well in the States! Things are going great in Costa Rica. We officially have a new space for the library and the language school for visiting English-speaking college students learning Spanish.


The new building was donated by the Women’s Council in Santa Cruz. The main room is at least twice the size of the previous library and there are two additional rooms attached that will act as classroom space for the language school.

Saturday we began work on the new library space by assembling a new set of shelves, varnishing wood and painting the shelf frames. Monday we will begin painting all of the walls of the new building and I hope to do a small mural. Our language classes will begin on Tuesday and at least the first week will be between 3 and 4 hours a day.

Once the library is painted, we will move all the books over from the old library and create a complete electronic catalog of the books in the library. That way we will better know the type of books the library needs in the future and can prevent repeating copies of books the library already has.

Once the new library is up and running we will be doing some activities out of the new space including reading workshops for mothers, children, and other groups. We will also be focusing our volunteering on a partnership with the local elementary school where we will be doing English classes and nutrition classes.

Sinceramente,

Mari Crook
Reader to Reader Volunteer

Neither Rain, Nor Snow, Nor Gloom of Night...

Two feet of snow is no deterrent to Cait Scudder who is heading to Costa Rica with books for the new public library in the coffee-farming village of Santa Cruz. Lucky Cait!

The library is part of Reader to Reader’s Beyond el Campo project, which builds libraries, and holds literacy camps and workshops in rural Costa Rica.

The new Spanish-language books were generously donated by Amherst College’s Frost Library.

In addition to Cait Scudder, two other Amherst College students, Alex Strecker and Mari Crook, traveled this month to Santa Cruz. Between all three of them they brought hundreds of books to expand the library which opened its doors in July.

Reading Opens Your Mind!

Things are going well at the the new community library in Santa Cruz, Costa Rica.

The town library now has 738 books on its shelves and over 50 town residents have taken out library cards in the first three weeks.

Reader to Reader funds recently purchased a dehumidifier to keep the books dry in the humid climate.

The library has just received its official library stamp that will be going on all of the books, and all of the library cards. It says "Biblioteca Publica de Santa Cruz L.C." and has a picture of an open book which inside reads "Leer te abre la mente" (Reading opens your mind).

The Biblioteca Publica de Santa Cruz is a project of Reader to Reader’s Beyond el Campo which builds community libraries in coffee-farming villages in rural Costa Rica. Beyond el Campo also runs literacy summer camps and adult book clubs in rural Costa Rica.

Open for Business!

Reader to Reader's Cait Scudder reports on the opening of the new community library in Santa Cruz, Costa Rica)

Hola David,

I am happy to say that Beyond el Campo continues to advance smoothly and steadily. Right now, there is a family (mainly the mother and her 14 year old son) who are running the library, which is open to the community 3 days a week. She has told me so many times how incredible this experience is for her, to have something to do, to get out of the house-- a major problem in these kinds of rural communities is the lack of work for women. I am also so happy to see her son, Danny, really enthused about working here.

We now have an established system of library cards, a regular schedule, volunteers to act as the librarians, book stands, and a secure lock for the library. It is in its first stages, to be sure, but it is fully functional, and so far there have been over 50 people who have come into the library and checked out a book.

The computer we brought down is also going to very good use. All of the library cardholders are registered in the system-- Danny has been teaching Gladys how to use a computer, and she is so happy to be learning how to use it.

In the beginning of this week, I am in San Jose, and today am going to meet with the library sciences school of the Universidad De Costa Rica, to see about getting some help getting our library started. I am also going to look in to purchasing a dehumidifier to put in the library, seeing as the climate in Santa Cruz, especially during the rainy season, is very humid and we don't want the books to get destroyed. Later in the week

I am going to Santa Cruz to meet with Victor, Gladys, Danny, Sergio, and the rest of the library committee to see where we are, where we are going, and what are short and long terms needs and goals are.

I am so proud of this community and so thrilled to see the really remarkable progress we have made in less than a year. It is incredible.

Best wishes,

Cait

Thank You Julia Springer!

Our deepest thanks to Reader to Reader volunteer (and recent high school graduate) Julia Springer for raising over $1,800 dollars for the Beyond el Campo literacy project.

Beyond el Campo works together with local community members in rural Costa Rica in an effort to strengthen their access to books and literacy rate.

The project is building a much-needed public library in the coffee-farming village of Santa Cruz, employing literacy tutors and supplying books for summer reading camps.

Julia’s successful fundraiser, which was held at her home in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, will help bring desperately needed resources that will benefit people of all ages in Costa Rica.

Three cheers for Julia!

A Helping Hand, A Warm Smile

Reader to Reader volunteer Caroline Stedman spent last week teaching in the Costa Rica town of Playa Potrero. She and Reader to Reader's project Beyond el Campo director, Cait Scudder, will head to Santa Cruz at the end of the week to launch the literacy camp they are running together.

A Computer for Costa Rica

Amherst College student Caroline Stedman is bringing to Costa Rica a new Acer laptop for the library being built in the town of Santa Cruz.

With Beyond el Campo, Reader To Reader works together with local community members in rural Costa Rica in an effort to strengthen their access to books and over all literacy rate.

Beyond el Campo Gets Generous Book Donations

Reader to Reader’s Costa Rica project, Beyond el Campo, has just received generous book donations from the book store Libreria Francesa and from the University of Costa Rica.

Beyond el Campo is building a community library in the rural Costa Rica town of Santa Cruz and will be holding literacy programs, including a children’s literacy camp this July.

Costa Rica Update

During the meeting held last Thursday in Santa Cruz, the Beyond el Campo committee met to discuss the program's short, medium, and long term goals.

With over 400 books now in Santa Cruz, the committee is currently working to ready the library space in the hopes to open it to the community by mid June. These dedicated community members take shifts sorting books, cleaning the small building, and building shelves and tables for the library.

Donate now to help the Beyond el Campo efforts!

Beyond el Campo Welcomes Victor Gamboa

We are pleased to welcome Victor Gamboa. who is serving as the supervisor of the Beyond el Campo committee in Santa Cruz, Costa Rica.

Victor is an extremely involved community member. He serves major roles in planning many community events, and serves on various committees, including the elementary school committee, and is part of a local traditional dance group, who has performed all around the world, including The Netherlands, Italy, and Colombia. He is the leader of a dedicated group of students in Santa Cruz called the Guias/Scouts, who take up new community projects and work to bring positive change in the Santa Cruz community.

He is happily married and the father of two girls, one 13 year old and one newborn.

Victor, three years ago, tried to gather local support to bring a public library in the town, but was unsuccessful due to a lack of economic resources and community support.

In January, he tried again to bring the community's focus back to literacy. He was leading a project with the Guias/Scouts to initiate a reading club in Santa Cruz for children, when we began to meet with him, and discuss our vision for Santa Cruz.

It is people like Victor, who dare to dream for positive change, and work diligently to see that change come about, that we at Reader to Reader most honor and admire! We are happy to be working in partnership with Victor Gamboa!

Maine High School Student Joins Beyond el Campo

We are so pleased to welcome Julia Springer of Cape Elizabeth, Maine to the Beyond el Campo project, which is building a community library in Santa Cruz, Costa Rica.

A Cape Elizabeth High School senior, Julia is heading to the Honors Program at the University of Delaware next fall.

It is people like Julia, whose heart is first and foremost in it for the community, that Beyond el Campo, and Reader to Reader is proud to call part of our team.

Julia wrote a wonderful essay that explains her love for the people of Santa Cruz.

My name is Julia Springer, and this is my story of becoming forever attached to the people of Santa Cruz, Costa Rica.

A few summers ago, I realized I needed a change in my life. I needed to immerse myself in a different culture, to put myself wholeheartedly into something that would help others, and to take a step out of my comfort zone. This mission, hopefully resulting in a discovery of purpose and an appreciation for life, landed me in the small, coffee-farming village of Santa Cruz, Costa Rica.

From the moment I met my host-family and project advisors I knew that any ounce of nerves I had had were insignificant. Never in my life had I been greeted by such welcoming arms, or treated with such compassion. The people of Santa Cruz taught me the true value of optimism and simplicity. They were always positive and considerate, no matter what the circumstances. They wore smiles even when I trucked mud through the house accidentally, and always made sure everyone was given a hug and kiss goodnight.

Spending time with the families in Santa Cruz and getting to know the children and teenagers of the town re-introduced me to the meaning of love, family, hard work, fun, and most importantly, inequality. I was amazed by the endless entertainment that was found from sitting around my host-family’s kitchen table playing cards, as we attempted to teach each other simple games from our respective childhoods (after only two years of Spanish, I had trouble explaining why we call a game ‘go fish,’ or ‘va a pescar’). They included me in their daily activities, including cooking dinner and going on evening walks. In a matter of hours, they made me an integral part of their family, despite the language barrier or cultural differences.

As I spent time with my host-brother and his friends, I saw how seriously they took their education, but also the disappointment in the knowledge that no matter how hard they worked, their resources were limited and that many of them wouldn’t even graduate or reach college. Listening to them talk about their school, teachers, materials and futures, and comparing them to those of my own, I was struck by the scarcity of resources and opportunities they had. I thought about my own school: the new calculus textbooks, the dozens of shiny laptops for research, and the free tutoring services. I also realized how many of my peers, and regrettably myself included, took these valuable resources for granted. I had never stopped to appreciate how my teachers were willing to stay after school to help me, or the immense amount of research I could do just out of my own school’s library. I couldn’t imagine my education without these programs and materials, and it broke my heart to see that these kids, who were some of the hardest workers I had ever met, didn’t have the same opportunities as I did.

During the end of my senior year of high school, I was given the opportunity to spend two weeks doing whatever type of community service or internship I wanted. I immediately realized that this was my chance to give back to a community that had given so much to me. I was finally going to be able to help the people that I feel forever indebted to by helping raise money for the Beyond el Campo project. I thought back to the conversations I had with my peers in Santa Cruz about their education and dreams of reaching college. I am honored to have the opportunity to make these dreams a reality for them and to give back to the incredible town of Santa Cruz, Costa Rica.

Beyond el Campo Gets Temporary Library Space

Reader to Reader’s Costa Rica rural literacy project, Beyond el Campo has secured a temporary library space in the town of Santa Cruz.

The space will serve as a reading center and center for all Beyond el Campo's major literacy programs in Santa Cruz, that will be begin at the beginning of July.

Among these programs include a literacy camp for school aged children, a beginner's "reading" hour for toddlers and their mothers, and a women's book club, amongst others. Within the next year, we hope to begin on the construction of the permanent library space, which will be two floors and provide a spacious work environment.

Reader To Reader works together with local community members in rural Costa Rica in an effort to strengthen their access to books and over all literacy rate.

Costa Rica Book Project Moves Forward

Reader to Reader's Cait Scudder met recently with community members of Santa Cruz, Costa Rica for their first planning session for the literacy project Beyond el Campo.

Beyond el Campo will help the rural village build a community library and also stock the town's small elementary school library.

Located in the mountains, the villagers of Santa Cruz struggle everyday to put food on the table, earning 10 dollars average daily income for the exhausting work of handpicking coffee beans. Their hope that their children can have higher paying jobs rests on improving their reading skills.

"I am so impressed by the passion and creativity being generated by the community towards the library project," Cait Scudder says. "Already, there are parents, community members, and teachers voicing their thoughts, and planning the next steps of the project. They are so excited at the mere thought of having access to a single book, let alone a library full-- most of the people attending these meetings have never been able to purchase a book before."

About Beyond el Campo:

With Beyond el Campo, Reader To Reader works together with severely under-resourced schools in rural Costa Rica in an effort to strengthen their educational resources, and teams with local community members to build community library resources in towns that have no other access to books.