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| American Corner invitation - Albanian |
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| American Corner invitation - Macedonian |
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| American Corner invitation - English |
It was Read Across America Day, a day created by the NEA to recognize the importance of reading as well as Dr. Seuss' birthday. I love reading and Dr. Seuss, so I always look forward to this each year. I wanted to make this year as memorable as possible to so I started to brainstorm what I could do here in Macedonia to celebrate the day and introduce it to the kids here as well. I called on my friends and family for some help and a book drive was born. With the wonderful help of my parents, my friend and co-worker Ashley and the principal of my school back home, Haeven, the planning was effective. We were going to have a book drive at Holmes during the week of Read Across America to collect books for the American Corner and community of Tetovo. The week would then end with a skype session with the students of Holmes and the students in Macedonia. Haeven shared our plan with the other schools around Lincoln giving them the opportunity to participate in the drive. Here in Tetovo, the American Corner agreed to host the skype event, and began to get out the word to students what would be taking place.
The books started coming in… and by the time Friday rolled around there were HUNDREDS! I really cannot put into words the gratitude I have towards all of the staff members at Holmes, with out them this event would not have been possible, and would never have been as successful. I truly work with an amazing group of people! The event started, the kids from Holmes said hello to us in both Albanian and Macedonian and we in Tetovo said "Hello" back. Haeven then read to the students at Holmes, and to us via skype two wonderful books. "Up" by Dr. Seuss and "No Matter What" by Debi Gliori. After the stories, those at Holmes shared with us in Tetovo the books they had collected. They weren't alone in the collection efforts, other schools from Lincoln have also brought books, and they continue to be coming in!! However, even though more books are coming in, at the time of the skype event there were over 1,000 books. I just can’t fathom. It is going to be so wonderful to have so much literature coming to Tetovo. The story was also on the local news station and in the local paper in Lincoln. Our greatest obstacle now is getting the money to send the books overseas. It is going to cost around $2 USD per book. Although the event has now taken place, the project is far from completed.
There were many people taking pictures while we skyped, the American Corner in Tetovo, my mom, and LPS staff. These are the pictures that they took:
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| Tetovo |
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| Tetovo |
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| Tetovo- Ashley and Haeven on the screen |
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| Tetovo |
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| Tetovo- with the Holmes students on the screen |
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| Tetovo |
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| Tetovo |
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| Tetovo- saying hello and thank you to the students |
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| Tetovo |
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| Students at the Tetovo event |
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| Students at the Holmes event |
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| Holmes students showing their books |
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| Haeven reading to the students |
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| Holmes- showing the screens |
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| Holmes students from the back |
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| Holmes- waving hello from Tetovo |
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| THE BOOKS!!!!!! |
Lesson: Gratitude is sometimes hard to express, words sometimes are just not enough.
What an amazing event!!!! And for such a great cause!!! I think that this is a day that these kids will remember for their whole lives.... I know that I will!!!! Great job Jen and Ashley!!!!
ReplyDeleteLove,
Dad Birdsall