Navarre High students sending thousands of books to Mongolia
NAVARRE — The world seems a little smaller these days for students at Navarre High School.
The shift in global perspective comes as the Student Government Association delves into a worldwide initiative called BOOKBRIDGE. The project, which was founded by German youth scouts, establishes English-language libraries in Mongolia through book donations.
See a photo gallery of Navarre High School students preparing to send books to Mongolia »
“It’s way bigger than us,” junior Clare Lattanze said of the effort. “It’s way bigger than our school.”
The libraries are intended to help students in Mongolia learn English and break the cycle that has caused the currently independent nation to be ruled by neighboring Russia and China throughout much of its history.
“This is their way of trying to remain independent,” said SGA President Nolan LeMaitre.
Local students learned about the program through the school’s literacy coach, Pattie Petrie.
Earlier this year Petrie spoke with former co-worker Deb Obermanns, who now teaches school in Germany, about BOOKBRIDGE. At the time, Petrie was interested in the program but wasn’t certain how to proceed. But when students started showing up at her office door with books that teachers had discarded, she thought of BOOKBRIDGE.
“It has just exploded,” Petrie said. “(Students) are seeing connections beyond we’re just giving people books.”
In one week, students have collected about 2,000 books. It will take only 13,000 to establish another library in Mongolia, but students hope to collect even more books than that and have started reaching out to the local community and other states.
“We’ve always been able to help our community easily … but we’ve never been able to do something on a grand scale,” Nolan said.
The project kicked into high gear this week when some of the BOOKBRIDGE representatives, including one of its co-founders, traveled from Germany to help get the initiative started.
Members of SGA met with them Wednesday afternoon to start sorting through the books to weed out those that would be offensive or inappropriate.
The libraries in Mongolia are stocked primarily with children’s books of varying levels of difficulty, but they also feature sections for teaching materials and other forms of media such as DVDs and CDs.
Thus far, BOOKBRIDGE has established four libraries in Mongolia, said co-founder Malte Boll. Under the current system, hubs are set up in different countries around the world, and a shipping company, Kuehne + Nagel, delivers the books at no cost to Mongolia.
This week, Navarre High School became the hub for the United States and will sort all the books donated in the country and prepare them for shipment.
The shift in global perspective comes as the Student Government Association delves into a worldwide initiative called BOOKBRIDGE. The project, which was founded by German youth scouts, establishes English-language libraries in Mongolia through book donations.
See a photo gallery of Navarre High School students preparing to send books to Mongolia »
“It’s way bigger than us,” junior Clare Lattanze said of the effort. “It’s way bigger than our school.”
The libraries are intended to help students in Mongolia learn English and break the cycle that has caused the currently independent nation to be ruled by neighboring Russia and China throughout much of its history.
“This is their way of trying to remain independent,” said SGA President Nolan LeMaitre.
Local students learned about the program through the school’s literacy coach, Pattie Petrie.
Earlier this year Petrie spoke with former co-worker Deb Obermanns, who now teaches school in Germany, about BOOKBRIDGE. At the time, Petrie was interested in the program but wasn’t certain how to proceed. But when students started showing up at her office door with books that teachers had discarded, she thought of BOOKBRIDGE.
“It has just exploded,” Petrie said. “(Students) are seeing connections beyond we’re just giving people books.”
In one week, students have collected about 2,000 books. It will take only 13,000 to establish another library in Mongolia, but students hope to collect even more books than that and have started reaching out to the local community and other states.
“We’ve always been able to help our community easily … but we’ve never been able to do something on a grand scale,” Nolan said.
The project kicked into high gear this week when some of the BOOKBRIDGE representatives, including one of its co-founders, traveled from Germany to help get the initiative started.
Members of SGA met with them Wednesday afternoon to start sorting through the books to weed out those that would be offensive or inappropriate.
The libraries in Mongolia are stocked primarily with children’s books of varying levels of difficulty, but they also feature sections for teaching materials and other forms of media such as DVDs and CDs.
Thus far, BOOKBRIDGE has established four libraries in Mongolia, said co-founder Malte Boll. Under the current system, hubs are set up in different countries around the world, and a shipping company, Kuehne + Nagel, delivers the books at no cost to Mongolia.
This week, Navarre High School became the hub for the United States and will sort all the books donated in the country and prepare them for shipment.
0 Response to "Navarre High students sending thousands of books to Mongolia"
Post a Comment