Hi, my name is Alexander Gholmieh. In April 2023, I visited my mom’s hometown in Mexico to spend time with my family. While there, I found out that the only library in my mom’s hometown (Santiago) had closed half a year ago. After asking around and visiting other local libraries, I found out that most of the property of the closed library had been moved to another library farther away. When I visited the new library, I was very disappointed by what I saw. Many of the new books were hidden away for a staff kitchen, broken computers were being used as decorations, and the visitor logs were almost empty. I felt a sense of responsibility to help the library because it was built upon the one my mom knew and loved. Although I knew there are a multitude of US libraries that need more books and modern computers as well, libraries in Mexico are much less likely to receive enough funding, if any. I knew that if I did not bring attention to this issue, the library will never be the space of learning and community that it deserves to be. This realization led me and a few close, trusted friends to create the Book Shepherds Club in our community.
The Book Sheperds Club consisted of myself (Alexander), Ava Perez, Alan Chevalley, and Hunter Freet.
Together, we did the following:
- Created a Go Fund Me page that collected more than $1300.
- Ran a bake sale to collect more money (about $100).
- Ran book drives at school where we collected over 500 books. See poster below (we had not settled on the name of our club yet).
- Got a donation of 24 Samsung tablets that had been used in a defunct educational experiment.
With the money, we were able to buy 3 desktop computers for use in the library. My family and I drove twice across the country from San Diego to Texas and then to Monterrey, to deliver the donations. My friends were not present to donate in person, but they were present in spirit.
Here are some pictures of the library and of the library patrons making use of the donated equipment and books:
ralphgholmieh.com 