In March-April 2003 Jamaicans.com partnering with Chichibud LTD. and Food For the Poor asked you the users of this site to support our book drive to benefit the Jamaica Library Services (JLS). We had a goal of collecting 100 children’s books by April 30, 2002. We beat the goal by almost 50 and this books were distributed this pass summer. Below are pictures, a list of the donor we had recorded based on the packages send, and the press release that went out on the fruits of your labor. Thank you and we will do it again next year.

Book Drive Contributors

Amy Swalley
Ann Marie Davis
Ayanna Evans
Carole Bell
Carlos Saona
Cat Turgeon
Cecile Cargill
Chelly Johnson
Christine Kling
Debbie Campbell
Denise Ingram
Don Enyart
Edith Hartman
Edmund Burke
Eric Harris
Elizabeth Maher
Judith Marson
Jan S Davis
Karen Stewart
Kathryn Whitbourne
Kimberly Nolan
Lori Nelson
Maciek Bruzdowicz
Marie Courage
Mary Thomas
Miss S. Williams
Nancy Facey Blackwood
Nina Doran
Pauline Binder
Samantha Falconer
Scott Rogers
Sherri Fennell
Susan Rankine
S.C. Rowe
Valerie Thompson
Venkatesh Rangachari
Veronica Hairston
Victoria Anderson
Victoria Victoria
Orrain Lee
Xavier and Karen Murphy

PRESS RELEASE

TO ALL MEDIA HOUSES

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

RE: JAMAICAN NGO VIRTUAL BOOK DRIVE

For Jamaica’s poor readers, the biggest obstacle may be lack of books. During March and April 2003, two Jamaican related ngos, jamaicans.com and Chichibud Ltd, decided to hold a virtual book drive to collect classic and recently published multicultural children’s literature for the Jamaica Library Service. Jamaicans.com is an innovative website providing over 10,000 Jamaicans with information on current events, Jamaican history and culture and the work of social service organizations. Jamaican based ngo, Chichibud Ltd. is dedicated to promoting literacy among primary school aged children through play and creative expression.

The brainchild of web savvy Jamaicans.com director Xavier Murphy, book choices were overseen by Chichibud boardmember and Professor of Education Dr. Rebecca Torello. An amazon “wish list” was created and put online at Jamaicans.com. Close to 200 brand new books were purchased by interested persons who visited jamaicans.com and shipped to Jamaica courtesy of Food for the Poor. The books were recently presented to the Jamaica Library System for use in their parish and mobile libraries. Jamaicans.com and Chichibud hope to make this an annual event.

For more information please contact R. Tortello at [email protected]

For more on Jamaicans.com please see www.jamaicans.com

For more on Chichibud Ltd please see www.chichibud.org