Students from several AUC organizations, including the LGBTQ+ Club and the Pediatric Interest Group, worked with Student Government Association (SGA) members and Krista Bryan-York, AUC academic coordinator, to raise funds to purchase books for children at Martin Luther King Jr. Primary School in Sint Maarten. Several students also donated personal books from home. The total value of donations is estimated at up to $1,000.
"The official goal of this project was to gain as many books as possible for donation in order to rebuild a library for the school after theirs was damaged," said Chantelle Phillips, SGA volunteer chair. "This initiative was very important to me because libraries are something that I have always valued growing up."
Chantelle said her love for reading began when she was in fifth grade, and it became a useful outlet whenever she was upset or sad. She also read for her own enjoyment and found beauty at a young age in being able to be engulfed in a different world.
"In addition, from an educational aspect, reading books also increases reading comprehension and critical thinking skills. That is why this project was so important to me – the children at MLK Jr. Primary School deserve the opportunity to appreciate and learn from books the way I did growing up," said Chantelle. "I’m so grateful to Jake [Galiatsos], Jodie [Stobierski] and her sister-in-law Julia for their amazing partnership in making this project a reality.”
Pictured are Jake Galiatsos, AUC Pediatric Interest Group representative and Chantelle Phillips, SGA volunteer representative with Herbert Duffis, principal and Minerva Marlin Cooper, vice principal.
"This would not have been possible without Jake and Chantelle! They were amazing and really pushed this initiative forward," said Jodie Stobierski, a fifth-semester representative who also supported the project. "They were instrumental in coordinating fundraising among students, staff, faculty and the administration."
She added, "We also could not have done this without my sister-in-law Julia Brown with PaperPie Books. She was able to match half of what was fundraised, which provided us an additional $250 worth of books to donate."
Jake said, "I was so happy to have the opportunity to help out. Chantelle, Jodie and I jumped into action because we understand the benefits of books on young individual's education and want every student no matter the circumstance to have the best opportunities.”
He expressed gratitude for Julia's contributions, which enabled the group to provide more books to the school. "We hope to continue this project on an annual basis and don't want to stop until they have a full library!"
