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Jumping into Summer Adventures! |
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In The Spotlight: The RACHEL Project: Bringing a Digital Library to Escuella Adelante, a Bilingual Charter School in SJDSNearly two years ago, we began to investigate RACHEL, a system that provides an impressive collection of digital (non-print) resources for under-resourced schools. RACHEL – Remote Area Community Hotspot for Education and Learning – seemed ideal for San Juan del Sur schools, where internet access is limited or altogether unavailable and where teachers, students, and families are eager for more learning resources. The RACHEL system, a product of WorldPossible.org, captures the wealth of free, internet-based educational and information resources and brings them to communities that otherwise wouldn’t have access. This August, a small team from the HJH Foundation will install a RACHEL server and Chromebooks at Escuela Adelante in a pilot project to explore the viability of the RACHEL system in one community school. If the pilot RACHEL Project is promising here, we hope to expand into more SJDS schools. Opportunity Tree International www.opportunitytree.org has helped us make the pilot RACHEL Project possible, and we are grateful for their partnership! Stay tuned… |
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Wiston and Jane doing show and tell with some of the RACHEL equipment brought down to San Jaun del Sur in June |
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A Footnote to the RACHEL Project
Thanks to the generosity of two HJH supporters, we are able to set up a second RACHEL server in SJDS biblioteca which can be used by the community and, just in case, will back up the other server. |
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Summer Matching Grant: Can you help us raise $7,900 by the end of our matching grant?
Please join us in celebrating the newest edition to our Mobile Project in the community of Tirurí, Nicaragua. The neighborhood recently reached out to us and asked if we would begin visiting their school with books and educational activities. Our wonderful staff immediately stepped up and added them as our 37th mobile library community! |
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The Mobile Project is an integral part of our core programming which costs a total of $3,950 to operate each month. Our goal for the next two months is to generate enough money through our matching grant to cover two months of operating costs for the library! Can you help us reach our goal?
Your generous gift during our Spring/Summer Matching Grant drive will help ensure continued support of our newest Mobile Project school and other Mobile Project communities. Donations made through the end of the summer will be included in our matching grant. Many thanks to those of you who have already contributed to the grant. We all thank you greatly for your support and together we know we can meet our goal!
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Jane Mirandette and Ingrid Olsen make a quick supply trip to Nicaragua
In June, Jane and Ingrid Olsen traveled together to bring many needed supplies to San Juan del Sur. They traveled across No Man’s Land between the border with Costa Rica in pouring rain with four suitcases containing materials for the upcoming RACHEL Project, books for the Mobile Project, and library cards for both the Mobile Project and the main library! One of the best events of the 4-day trip was a 3-hour intensive brainstorming meeting and lunch with the library staff. We made plans for August and the November Anniversary, discussed needs and issues, and everyone had a chance to have the floor with their insights and observations. A mini photo workshop took place, and here is a peek at the results of one photo op during the lunch at La Careta food truck and picnic area near the bay.
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Aim’s Bookstore Follow-Up:
We have an enormous amount of books in need of transportation to Nicaragua thanks to the huge donation from Aims International Books earlier this year! The new school that was just added to our Mobile Project is checking out so many that we have had to start pulling books from the main library to loan on the Mobile Project! At our last Board meeting Heidy said “¡necesitamos más libros!” – we need more books! We will be bringing 5-7 suitcases full of books with us when the Board travels to install the RACHEL Project in August. We would like to extend our appreciation to our catalog extraordinaire and Board Member, Barb Thorne, who has been working hard to prep the books for the trip and have them ready to go into circulation as soon as they land. All of the books we bring down in August will go to the Mobile Project to provide new content and more selection for our eager readers.
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“¡Necesitamos más libros!/We need more books!” – Heidy |
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Teacher/Librarian From Colorado Spends Month in San Juan del Sur!
Andrea and her family embarked on a month-long trip to Nicaragua in June, and they spent quite a bit of time volunteering with the library! Andrea has been able to go out on the Mobile Project and help staff loan books to students. Her family volunteered with the Saturday English Class in the library, and they also volunteered to clean up trash and other debris along the beach. We have enjoyed having families volunteering with us again in Nicaragua! If you are interested in planning a service learning trip to Nicaragua, we are here to help!
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Andrea and her family enjoying a welcome dinner with Jane, Ingrid, and Joelle at the Villa Isabella. |
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HJH Foundation Members Attend ALA Conference In Washington, DC
The HJH Foundation was selected to participate in the American Library Association (ALA) poster sessions and gave a presentation titled: Sueños 3D – Dreams in 3D: The First Public Library 3D Print Center in Nicaragua – How a Nicaraguan library partnered with a University to create a 3D Print Center and with grant support, developed a training program for students in Nicaragua.
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The poster Jane and Lily presented at the ALA Annual Convention in Washington D.C |
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In 2019, a partnership with the University of Maryland allowed us to bring 3D printers to our library in San Juan del Sur. Since then, the printers have made functional items like showerhead nozzles, COVID-19 faceshields, and other special orders for local businesses. Library staff member Wiston has also created several fun items like a 3D printed dragon for last year’s Jumpstart Read for the Record book, Amy Wu and the Patchwork Dragon. This spring, Wiston began teaching a 3D technology course to a small group of students from the San Juan del Sur Day School. A larger group of students will take this course at the end of the summer, thanks to the grant we were awarded from ALA’s International Relations Round Table (IRRT) group. We have come a long way with our 3D Print Center, and we are very excited for all of the creations yet to come! |
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Jane Mirandette Visits the University of Maryland to Talk about the Work of The HJH Foundation: |
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This flier was prepared by iSchool Ph.D. student: Connie Siebold at Professor Ana Ndumu’s request. HJH Board Member Lily Griner masterminded and facilitated this successful event, which 28 UMD faculty and students attended in person or via Zoom.
For more than a decade, The HJH Foundation has partnered with the University of Maryland iSchool and the R.H. Smith School of Business to provide experiential learning opportunities in Nicaragua for students and to support the HJH Foundation’s important projects. Jane used the opportunity of her attendance at the ALA conference in Washington, DC to attend a reception given for her at the University of MD. Invited guests included faculty and students from the iSchool, the Latin American Studies Center, and the R.H. Smith School of Business.
In her presentation, Jane discussed the Foundation’s current projects and plans for those she hopes to do in the future. At this successful event, Jane met and talked with old-time friends as well as potential partners about opportunities for collaborative projects and future support for efforts in Nicaragua. We are very thankful for the opportunity to participate in this event and look forward to continuing our longstanding relationship with many of these groups. |
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Jane speaking to UMD faculty and students. |
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Heidy Interviews a Teacher From One of Our Mobile Project Sites
Heidy, our co-library Director, had the opportunity to interview a teacher from one of the schools our Mobile Project visits each month. Heidy asked her about the visits and how they support her school and help enhance student learning. Watch the video below to see what the Mobile Project means to the teachers and the schools it serves.
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Exciting Things to Come: CAL Librarians Adventure Tour, November 10th-18th
We are thrilled to announce the HJH Foundation is partnering with the Colorado Association of Libraries (CAL) to offer a volunteer tourism trip this November. A group of librarians will join us in San Juan del Sur to participate in our 21st Anniversary Celebration, experience how our library operates in Nicaragua, join a librarian and teacher’s workshop in Granada, and spend some time touring Nicaragua. We know we say it over and over again, but we really can’t express just how much it means to us that these trips are able to continue once again after so many months without them.
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A Note from Jane:
Hello all, here we are in the midst of summer, well that is if you are in the US and the midst of winter if you are in Nicaragua where winter means 70 degree days and rainy! It seems most things we think about are like that, a dichotomy, i.e., a division or contrast between two things that are represented as being opposed or entirely different. HJH is in the midst of our major fundraising Matching Grant now and planning activities, events, and two project trips to San Juan del Sur before the end of Fall. If I think too hard, things can feel disconcerting.
I need to tell you, just returning from time with a plethora of librarians in Washington, DC, and the professors and students at University of Maryland, I find myself inspired and using and thinking in big words! Disconcerted made me think of its opposite, concerted. I looked up definitions and synonyms: Jointly planned, united, coordinated, cooperative, interactive and synergetic! There! That’s the idea. While things may be jumbled and undefined, we can act in a concerted way in our efforts together. We can be “in concert” like a fine orchestra. Please join me in this next season, be it our summer or winter, in a concerted effort to go forward into the next season in a synergistic, positive, and prosperous way!
Jane
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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
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