When we learned through one of our guests, Ms. Catherine R. Eads, of the opportunity to purchase school books for an elementary school through her employer, Usborne Publishing, we thought of Carla and Carlos’ school. Not being very confident of our Spanish abilities, we first made contact with their English teacher, Maestra Lilliana María Quesada Herrera. Through her, we were able to make an appointment with the school’s principal, who approved of our proposal to try to supplement her library.

The school is a lovingly maintained, joyful environment for and through the children, who participate in the school’s yearly government award mission of excellence in health and environmental issues. The students, including the kindergarteners, created this colorful mosaic mural, decorating the main front of their school, as explained here by Maestra Lilliana.

Another past project is the herb garden, while the butterfly garden is a current school project. The grade school also participates in ‘Bandera Azul’, a program created by the Department of Public Education to promote the goal of sustainable development in harmony with the environment. Recycling habits and a consistently high quality of drinking water are the main subjects of this program at Santa Eulalia elementary school. Other schools are participating in reforestation, organic farming, waste management, beach erosion, species protection and similar projects across the country.

Above is the door to Maestra Lilliana’s second-grade classroom. Its windows overlook the herb garden, over which the new mesh enclosures for the butterfly garden are being installed.

Santa Eulalia elementary school has a daily physical exercise program for all its students, as well as a daily ‘quiet reading’ time. The teachers are excited and grateful for this opportunity to supplement their meager budget for resource purchases with an unexpected bounty of enriching material for their students – thanks to your generosity, there will be new books for everyone. Languages, sciences, arts and crafts, music and storytelling, every segment of education and culture will receive books for the new school year commencing in February!

! 💜 !  Y O U   R O C K   G U Y S  ! 💜 !

All in all, we were able to send a check of $360 to Usborne Publishing, who made a 50% matching contribution* for a grand total of $540 worth of books for la Escuela Santa Eulalia.

       

* We mistakenly believed the publishing house offered a 100% matching grant, but it’s actually a 50% grant.