I am a member of Westminster Presbyterian Church of West Chester, Pennsylvania. Westminster has had an ongoing mission in La Entrada, Honduras for about the last ten years, in conjunction with Liberty Corner Presbyterian Church of Liberty Corner, New Jersey. When I was thirteen, a family friend went on the annual mission trip to La Entrada and upon her return told me about the school they had gone to which, at the time, had very few books. As an avid reader from an early age, I struggled to imagine a school without books. The thought stayed with me for the next two years.
When I was a sophomore in high school, I began the prerequisites for my Girl Scout Gold Award Project, and began looking for a project to fulfill the requirements of my project. I soon realized that I could collect books for the school my friend had told me about - but as I spoke with Ken and Shirley Ballinger, the mission trip organizers, and learned more about La Entrada, I realized that the need extended far beyond the walls of the schools. The idea of a community library began forming. That spring, I went to Book Expo America 2005 and began collecting information about Spanish-language publishers and booksellers. That summer, I went on the mission trip to La Entrada, and at 16, without either of my parents, signed a contract providing for the foundation of a library with Marcio Vega, the mayor of La Entrada.
Luckily, my parents were receptive to the idea. They didn't balk at the idea of their teenage daughter taking on such a large task, but only asked me how I would do it. While I was in La Entrada, I had taken several hours of video footage, and I began by making those videos into a short informational clip. I then created a presentation about my Gold Award project, and began delivering it to anyone who would listen, from Rotary Clubs to Sunday School classes to Girl Scout troops. I also created a book sponsorship program, where, for $15, I would put a bookplate bearing the donor's name in one of the library's books. In addition, I held fundraisers selling items such as signed books, artwork, and local handcrafts. One fundraiser was a book fair and book signing at Chester County Book and Music Company with illustrator Mike Berenstain. In the first year, I raised just over $10,000.
It took off, and in June 2006 I shipped just under 1,000 books to La Entrada. In August, my mother and I followed them there, and hurriedly prepared for the library's opening, recruiting Olga Ayala, a local businesswoman, to manage the library's accounts, carrying the last 60 books to the library myself, and surveying the newly renovated building the mayor had given us to house the library. On the day of the opening, I got to meet the librarian, Lucia Judith Guerra Villeda, who had previously worked at the Red Cross. The Public Library of La Entrada opened on August 11, 2006, and its opening was well-covered by local media.
After I completed my Gold Award, the library's fundraising could no longer stay under the 501(c)3 umbrella that the Girl Scouts then provided to such projects. (Since then, heavy restrictions have been placed on fundraising for Gold Award projects.) With the help of Larmore Scarlett LLP of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, and Bonnie Korengle of Umbreit, Korengle and Associates PC CPA, I incorporated the La Entrada Library Project, adding a three-member board, and registered it as a 501(c)3 charity, making donations to it tax-deductible. I continue to raise funds for the Library Project, in order to fund the ongoing operations of the library in La Entrada, and, hopefully, use what I've learned in La Entrada to start libraries in other areas that are trying to further develop their social infrastructure.
Since the library opened, Mrs. Villeda has worked tirelessly to improve the library, adding programs to attract schoolchildren to it, and bringing in 500 books from local sources. Mrs. Ayala was offered a position on the current four-member board of directors, but declined due to poor health. The original contract with Mayor Vega stated that after three years, the library would come under municipal control. Currently, we are negotiating the details fo that transition, which is to take place in August of this year, before the new mayor is elected in January 2010.
If you have any questions that I haven't answered, please email them to me at laentradalibraryproject@gmail.com. I have committed the last four years of my life to this project because it is very important to me; I want to share my love of books with others, and beyond that, I have come to love the friends I have made in La Entrada, and I want to share their stories with the world.
