Tom and I would like to ask that if you have spare room in your luggage, if you don't mind dropping off books for Children and Yound Adults in English. The library can really use them! If you drop them off at The Tourism Corporation Bonaire (TCB) Office (at the Y turn-next to the ATM)Delno, Elsmarie Soeraly or Rolando will make sure they get to the Library.

The library is located next to Jong Bonaire. We go back forth to the island 3 times a year and have donated boxes of books to Support Bonaire and brought about 20 lbs of book with us on our last trip. We toured the library and met with the librarian as well as the very courteous people from TCB. They also have tow computers but they were not working when we were there. Tom tried to repair them but they needed a new motherboard and they need some type of security lock to prevent theft. You can find us in the attached article.

http://www.bonairenewsletter.com/issues/Entrenous_Issue_31_073102.htm

We donated several "ABC" and learning English word books. What they really need is more books in English for the beginner as well as popular books such as Harry Potter in English. they have most of the Shakespearean classics in English already. These donations should be new or fairly new shape.

In addition, the could use:
English Encyclopedia-They have one set dated from before Nixon
Any Dictioneries - English to Spanish in particular.
Any Math, Geography, History or language or tutorial games/software in English
College Prep guides - Schaum's Outlines/ etc.

Many of the hotels have English romance novels and Tom Clancy books in their mini-libraries, however this effort will touch a large number of people for a long time.

Please donate books directly to Support Bonaire if you need a tax donation receipt.

I can be emailed at aggielady@scientexlc.com if you have further questions.

I'll further offer that we'd be happy to be a drop location for books and parts for the library as well. Linda takes the kids there almost every week, so it would be no trouble.

Jake (at the WebCam house)

Hi,

I took the liberty of posting this request at the D2D Rodales website. Who knows, if all the vistors to Bonaire bring just a book or two, it could really add up to a nice contribution.

Has anyone contacted Air Jamaica to see if they would offer reduced freight rates to passengers from the states who wanted to bring the normally pricey 3rd pice of checked luggage in the form of a big box of books?

Just wondering.

In our "moving mode" we have packed up alot of books we no longer want and have no where to bring them...we have alot of college level english, sociology,Psychology text books...also good ole book of the month clubs and some medical books........We have quite a collection of National Geographics....that maybe (if you think they want them....) we could bring little by little each trip...Let me know....

I missed Becky's note above about Support Bonaire (duh!), but if you want to make a tax deductible donation of books, with a destination of Bonaire, you would need to do that via Support Bonaire, Inc. (http://www.supportbonaire.org).

Books need to be in good shape, and something that one of the non-governmental non-profits (e.g. Jong Bonaire or Maria Hoppner orphanage, and I believe the Library is non-government controlled, which would qualify them for SBI support as well) could use.

If you want to do the above, please send the books in a sturdy box to:

Support Bonaire, Inc.
c/o AMCAR Freight
7700 NW 81 Place, Ste. 01
Miami, FL 33166

My sons have each purchased a book to bring with us next week as a donation. They are children's books. What is the best way to get them in the right hands? Is there someone I can leave them with at the resort - or can we give them to Caren when the boys see her for reef explorers?

Hi, Might I suggest you contact the director of the Maria Hoppner Foundation, which takes care of underprivilged children. The director, Elly Albers, can be reached through email at z.m.h.s.@bonairelive.com.

Susan

Folks who donate books should keep in mind that the language here is Dutch and Papiamentu for the younger kids, although most of the older ones speak English quite well. I agree with Susan that folks should contact Elly for specific needs.

Some of the high school and Jong Bonaire teachers have suggested easy reading teen/young adult books in English for the library. The kids start learning English around age 12 on Bonaire. So the little kid books are too childish and the adult books are too hard and too long.

Well, the 2 books we bought are for very young children and they are in English. Would they still be useful as books that adults could read to children? If I have time before we leave tomorrow, I will try and see if I can pick up some easy reading books for young adults - but I was hoping to still be able to find a good home for the 2 books we have. I am using this as a learning experience for Austin and Dylan and would like to figure out a way that this will work. Thanks!

The library could still use the books even for very young kids. The benefit there is that even a child that can't read it can look at the pictures. Although there is not a huge crowd taking out the young English books, they do see regular use and they definitely need more.

Let me add that the books donated to the library are available to everyone including adults who may want to improve upon their abilities in English. I have been informed that the Harry Potter books I am donating will be checked out by a few adults as soon as they arrive.