When we heard of the terrible tragedy in which Adam Vitaterna lost his life and read the impassioned on-line
pleas of his father, Andrew, in the ensuing months; we were moved beyond description.
We wanted desperately to do something of substance to honour Adam’s memory and also assist the children of the
Dominican
Republic. We discussed a number of ideas but the one which kept rising
to the top and seemed to resonate the most with our executive was the Adam Vitaterna Literacy Project.
We will solicit donations from our
supporters which will fund the purchase of books for the school children of the Dominican Republic. Each book will be placed in a school library (most school libraries in the Dominican Republic are little
more than a book case in the corner of a classroom) and will have a bilingual (English-Spanish) bookplate which will explain
who Adam was, what BTB is, who donated the book and other pertinent information. As
the program expands we plan to include a variety of options up to and including the funding of small encyclopaedia sets to
schools.
Several steps have been taken to set this
program in motion including as recently as two weeks ago when one of our executive met with various interested parties in
the Dominican
Republic. We hope to begin accepting donations in Adam’s name by the end of this winter
tourist season, use the slower summer as a learning curve and be in full action by this time in 2008.
If you have any questions or would like further
information please contact:
Gregg Andrews
Secretary/Treasurer
Beyond The Beach Children’s Foundation
