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Books 4 Buddies Sponsors East Toledo Event
Special to The Truth
Books 4 Buddies believes education is a global
responsibility, last week they proved it.
Books 4 Buddies (B4B), a nonprofit literacy organization,
sponsored its Books/Buddies/Blankets event last Wednesday
for the residents of Birmingham Terrace on the city’s east
side. The community center became a global hub as artifacts
from Africa, international students from seven countries,
and a storyteller from The Democratic Republic of the Congo
transformed the space.
B4B President and Co-Founder Laneta Goings received
homemade, kid-sized blankets from Bud Hite, executive
director of the Correctional Treatment Facility. The felt
blankets of assorted colors, with coordinating wraparound
ties, were made by residents of the treatment facility.
Book Ambassadors, the young men representing B4B, then
teamed with area international students from the American
Cultural Exchange Service (ACES) to distribute the blankets
and books to children who were present. This occurred after
the ACES students themselves received orange B4B t-shirts
and wristbands like their American counterparts. They
immediately put them on, symbolic of both their global
responsibility to educate and their inclusion into the B4B
family.
The students participating included three B4B ambassadors:
Ivan Dye, Mondo Arce and Andrew Hoppenjans, all of St.
John’s Jesuit High School. The ACES students participating
were Ferial Alagha (Palestine), Mariam Cisse (Mali),
Muhaimina Omar (Tanzania), Alex Peralta (Spain), all of
Scott High School, Loay Alarab (Lebanon) of Start High
School, Joseph Kebbie (Sierre Leone) of Toledo Technology
Academy and Marina Denali (Brazil) of Clay High School.
Local ACES coordinators Tracee Ellis of Toledo and Val Virag
of Oregon attended with their international students.
The students, staged in a semicircle around the children,
read to youngsters as they munched on cookies, mini-candy
bars and other fun treats provided by LMHA. Young Kebbie was
especially entertaining as he read “What is a Dinosaur?”
His enthusiasm, his expressive eyes and a smile reminiscent
of the diamonds found in his West African country, left the
children craving more. |
