|
|
Happy Springtime everyone!
Spring/Summer
2021 Matching Grant Announcement
|
|
| We are pleased to announce a generous supporter has again offered to provide us with a 2021 Spring/Summer Matching Grant! This grant will begin May 15th and continue until August 15th. Pledges, including monthly pledges, can be accepted. The situation in Nicaragua is still critical, and we are doing everything we can to provide for those who need help. |
|
|
We will continue to seek out additional opportunities for the rest of 2021. We encourage everyone to look into their employer’s Ambassador and Matching Gift Programs. Many companies report less than a 20% utilization of these programs. It would be excellent to find a matching gift program to replace the annual BP (British Petroleum) Matching Grant that supported us for so many years! Check out the Matching gift programs at these top companies:
Top 30 Matching Gift Companies: Find Your Match – 360MatchPro
Ongoing needs: As our programs restart, donations continue to be essential to maintain our efforts. We are currently making many improvements to the library to “refresh” since COVID-19 began over a year ago. We inaugurated the library building we currently occupy in 2014. When we opened, we purchased six HP One-in-One computers. Now, we need to replace three of them.
The 3D Printer classes, planned for later this year, will require additional laptops, chairs, and desks for the classroom.
Please consider making a donation to assist in all of these areas while our matching grant doubles the impact of your donation!
|
|
We are registered as Hester J. Hodgdon Libraries for All. Please donate today with the PayPal or JustGiving buttons above OR by check made payable to:
HJH Programs
1716 Del Norte Ave.
Loveland, CO 80538 |
|
|
Spring Cleanup and Painting Event at the San Juan del Sur Biblioteca Pública
The main library area and children’s room are available for lending only. We are anticipating a full reopening late May or early June, so this was a perfect time to freshen up the library! We have fixed up the kitchen area, painted the classroom, and installed a new garden area on the patio! We are in the process of purchasing new computers for the media room and hope that we can reopen media services in June.
|
|
Mobile Project Success Continues
Excitement surrounding the Mobile Project has increased this year after being paused in 2020. Restarting the project has been incredibly successful! We are visiting 35 community schools once a month where books are being borrowed and exchanged. The collection of books was just refreshed with $500 worth of new books purchased in Managua and another 200 books brought down in suitcases from Loveland, CO. Prelabeled and ready to circulate, the books have been waiting to go to Nicaragua since March 2020 but have just recently been delivered! There are many more books in Loveland, CO waiting to be delivered and will be brought down with a small volunteer group from Loveland in June, 2021. |
|
The Satellite Library Project, located in 12 rural schools, has been a co-authored project with Opportunity Tree International (an educational nonprofit organization in Boulder, CO) for several years. Since 2010, it has grown the number of schools it provides with standing book collections and lending supplies . Children attending these schools do not have to wait for the monthly mobile project visit and can check out books whenever they like. As funds become available, we plan to provide each of our 35 community schools with a “Satellite Library.” Stay tuned for pictures and a map of the various schools in an upcoming newsletter.
Schools opened in February of 2021 and we have visited the 12 satellite libraries regularly. The book collections have been revived and all are functioning. There are plans to initiate interactive activities which will include 2020’s Jumpstart’s Read for The Record book Evelyn Del Rey is Moving Away (Evelyn Del Rey Se Muda). The book, which deals with the last day two best friends spend together before one moves away, celebrates the powerful bond of friendship and the difficulties of separation. This book is being distributed to the Satellite schools with several activities focused on coping with loss and change. We will also provide the Mobile project schools with these materials later in the school year. |
|
Los Quinchos:A shoe shopping spree and a subsequent Easter celebration in SJDS
A few weeks ago, Edwin and Heidy visited La Hoskas in San Marcos, Nicaragua, a part of the Los Quinchos “No More Children Of The Street” program (losquinchos.it). Edwin and Heidy took the girls shopping for new shoes! |
|
 | Girls shopping for new shoes with Heidi. |
|
| The SJDS Biblioteca serves as a hospedaje (place to stay) for both the boys and girls programs during holidays. During the week of Semana Santa, 12 boys and girls, who had no other safe place during the holiday, stayed at the library while we were closed for the long weekend. They were accompanied by six adults, four teachers/leaders who live and work with the children, one house-mom and one aid. They came to SJDS for three days and only had enough food for one of those days. We had a pizza party on the beach, complete with Eskimo ice cream afterwards and served other home cooked meals made by both our library staff and staff at Hotel Villa Isabella. |
|
| We have partnered with Los Quinchos for over 15 years now to meet the various needs of the children. One of the leaders, who was a quincho as a child, says he remembers every event we have ever hosted for them in SJDS, from pool parties at the Villa Isabella to Christmas parties at Casa Marina. Many have grown up safely over the years but the need within this group of children is at the greatest it has ever been. We are happy to be able to partner with them to bring more support and a small amount of joy to those who need it most. |
|
Remembering Michael Iacoboni |
|
By Jane Mirandette It is with deep sadness and a hole in my heart that I share the news that Dr. Michael Angelo Iacoboni, DDS passed away suddenly of a cerebral cardiac event, at his home in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua on Monday March 22, 2021 at the age of 73. Mike was a dear friend to many of us and to our programs in Nicaragua. Michael’s choice was to be buried in the little cemetery in the town of San Juan del Sur where he spent the past 20 years with only short trips back to the States. Ann Zebrowski, an HJH Advisory Board member and close friend, traveled with me to Nicaragua on March 24, and we stayed for a month at Hotel Villa Isabella to complete our 37-year adventure with Michael. Michael had many careers and hobbies throughout his lifetime: Surfer, Dentist, Pilot, Professor, Editor, Deep Sea Diver, World Class Seashell Collector, and, for the last 20 years, Hotel Owner and Entrepreneur in San Juan del Sur. In 1999, Michael and I took a tour to Nicaragua with International Living. It was a guided adventure and real estate tour to and throughout Nicaragua. Michael described his decision for us to go saying “Jane, they are a Third World country with needs we could fill, close enough to travel to, and they have two oceans. It’s a narrow land bordered by both the Pacific and Atlantic ocean.” After that November 1999 tour, which he described as “a mile wide and an inch deep” we returned several times on our own in early 2000, and in May of that year we purchased a small hospedaje, the Villa Renata with five bedrooms and a very short list of inventory and furniture. This became Hotel Villa Isabella and has been a thriving Bed and Breakfast in the center of town three blocks from San Juan bay, which was just a little fishing community at the time. Michael truly understood the value of libraries. His father, Angelo M. Iacoboni, was the founding Mayor of Lakewood CA, where the Lakewood CA Public Library bears his name, the Angelo M. Iacoboni Public Library. Michael was very supportive of the HJH Foundation and the biblioteca. He helped us house volunteers, hold workshop events and other activities at the Villa Isabella. Many of you have visited the hotel on one or more volunteer or mission adventures. Michael was always on the porch early each morning with coffee ready, and he was prepared to provide the very best breakfast in San Juan del Sur. In honor of Michael’s memory a donation fund has been created to continue his work with the HJH Foundation for those of you that who knew him and would like to honor him this way by using the buttons below. Please indicate in the Note field that the contribution should go to the Michael A Iacoboni Memorial Fund. |
|
New Team Member
We are happy to announce a new member of the SJDS Library Team
Wiston had been helping out on a daily basis throughout April and was hired on 4/16/21 as a full time employee to take over Jossy’s technology responsibilities. Wiston is the son of Katia who has worked in the library since 2010. His dad is a contractor who has been helping with library improvements including cementing the new garden wall. We plan to have Wiston attend a Saturday computer class in Rivas to improve his computer skills. For now, his duties include the new patio garden area, working on the mobile project and managing the computer area. An interesting fact about Wiston is that he won an essay contest many anniversaries ago. In his essay, he described being in the library every day with his mom and how he dreamed of one day working there too! Wiston’s special interest is in the 3D printer and being part of the upcoming training program.
|
|
Wiston and his 3D-printed “Stitch”. |
|
Library Patio Gets A New Look
The building that bordered our patio for many years was recently demolished which left us with a security issue that was highlighted when the children of Los Quinchos came to visit. While refreshing the library, Edwin and Wiston devised a plan to recreate the wall garden we had all enjoyed so much. They suggested a wire grid used to prepare flooring which made a sturdy barrier that was airy but secure. The results are lovely and provide a greater measure of security as well. |
|
COVID-19 UPDATE:
Semana Santa (Easter week) saw San Juan busting at the seams. Hotels were full and most practiced social distancing and had hand washing stations. Most shops and restaurants maintained social distancing, required masks mandates, took temperatures, and squirted all clients with an alcohol hand sanitizer. There were even foot mats with sanitizer located in each doorway that patrons walked through to sanitize their shoes! The beaches were full, and parking lots just out of town were packed with school busses that brought beach goers of every stripe to San Juan del Sur.
Recent information from the new hospital (Hospital primario gaspar garcia lariana) in San Juan del Sur reports an alarming upsurge in COVID cases. No deaths have been reported recently. |
|
| As we’ve noted in recent newsletters, the disclosures of numbers of cases and deaths from COVID-19 differ in national reports. Statistics that Observatorio Ciudadando gathers from independent sources continue to show greater numbers than the Nicaraguan Ministry of Health (MINSA). |
|
Total cases and suspected cases April 2020 – March 24, 2021
from Observatorio Ciudadando.
The good news is that vaccines have arrived in Nicaragua as a result of international cooperative efforts. On March 16, the Pan American Health Organization reported that Nicaragua received 135,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. La Prensa reported on May 4 that 70,000 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine arrived from Russia. Many of the elderly in San Juan have received their first vaccine shot at no cost. Private clinics now provide the vaccine for a fee, and it is available without an age limit to all adults. |
|
HJH has a new Facebook Page!
We are pleased to announce we have created a new Facebook page for the Hester J. Hodgdon Libraries for all Foundation! This page will highlight work we are doing within the Foundation with other organizations as well. We’ll also give you a few interesting articles on literacy! Please click here to like the page and consider inviting your friends to like it by sharing on your own page! |
|
A Final Note from Jane
I am eager for Spring and, as this newsletter suggests, there is a brightness coming amidst the clouds of health and financial concerns and loss. While our tentative plans for a Summer 2021, Mini-GRIP (Global Responsibility Internship Program) are on hold until 2022, I am planning a trip in mid-June with a small volunteer group and again in November for the Library’s 20th Anniversary.
I am optimistic we have turned a corner in many ways, and the best way to honor those we have lost this past season is to forge ahead into the next stages with kindness and enthusiasm. We will continue to work to provide all the services and educational support that are needed as we move ahead.
Please join with us however you can in this time of cautiously forging forward!
Take good care, Jane
|
|
|
|
|
