The Unbound Bookmaker Volunteer Program on Kwajalein Atoll

LTG MDA/D Pat O'Reilly, Jamie Zvirzdin, and U.S. Ambassador to the Marshall Islands Tom Armbruster in front of the Wellness Center. September 2012.

Last month I had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of three-star Lieutenant General Pat O'Reilly, and he brought up the possibility of starting a volunteer program for personnel on Kwajalein, where many people who work for the military wish to help the local Marshallese population but aren't quite sure how.

I suggested that personnel wishing to be Reading Volunteers could purchase the finished books from The Unbound Bookmaker Project from Amazon.com (the books are sold at-cost) and go read to a classroom of students, raffling off copies, teaching the students how to care for books (many of whom have never owned a book in their life), and showing the students how to create little 8-paged books out of a single sheet of paper. See these little books from the Majuro Cooperative School as examples.

Susannah Prenoveau, who works with the Child, Youth, and Services Program on Kwaj and has been there for 15 years, has generously volunteered to head this endeavor; she had similar desires a few years ago (see her own self-published books, which her children illustrated, at www.alligatorscoming.com and www.gottaseenathan.com) and has great ideas on how to involve the teen 4-H and Boys and Girls Club in the readings. She will be collecting donated books to raffle off as well as money to purchase copies of The Unbound Bookmaker Project books that WorldTeach and their classes are doing with us this year. She is also fundraising so that we can add The Important Book about Ebeye to our collection at some point in the future (which I would be doing remotely since we're leaving the Marshall Islands in April 2013). This is a wonderful way to take the work of the Marshallese children and help other children to read and to be excited and interested in reading. The ~20 books, except for the pilot book, The Important Book about Majuro, will be in both English and Marshallese.

The 20+ books from WorldTeach are scheduled to be available on Amazon.com starting March 2013, although readings of The Important Book about Majuro by various organizations like 4-H are being planned for January 2013.

If you'd like to participate in any of these activities, please contact Susannah Prenoveau at [email protected].

Thanks to all who have encouraged this volunteer program through their time, donations, and support.

General O'Reilly reading to children on Ebeye.