About Project Apollonia Project Apollonia is the Dream of Grupo Utopia Founder David Anderson and children's book author Nancy Gilliam. The purpose of the project is to provide Costa Rican school children with access to high quality English language books for grades K-6. Project Apollonia is named for Apollonia Anderson Calderon, David's youngest daughter, born December 4, 2003.

English has always been an important part of the school curriculum in Costa Rica and is an important part of the learning process. Recent cuts in government spending have affected the government's ability to purchase and maintain English language libraries.

The Goal of Project Apollonia is to donate 1,000 children's books to Costa Rican schools by June of this year (2004), and 10,000 by the end of the year. To that end, A group of parties in the United States and Costa Rica have organized Project Apollonia as a non profit organization based in San José, Costa Rica.

Our plan is to donate the first batch of books in June of 2004 to the Costa Rican Ministry of Education. Our focus is to donate the first thousand books to the poorest schools in Costa Rica, and we have selected Limon, the poorest of Costa Rica's seven provinces to receive the first of the books.

U.S. organizations and individuals can help by collecting or buying new and used books (Used books only in new like condition).

Books should be storybooks, spelling books, or other suitable English language books for grade levels K-6. Please do not send History, Social Sciences or Math books. (We may expand to this latter). Costa Rican organizations and individuals can sponsor this effort as well by buying books, helping to offset mailing cost, or assisting in distribution.

We have set up a special email account: Please use it for correspondence.

Please send all book donations to:

Books should be new or in new like condition. All books should be targeted to K-6 students and should be basic reading text or story books. Please do not send cash or check donations.

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Participating Organizations

The Blue and White Family

• Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.;

• Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.;

• Sigma Doves and Sweethearts;

Freemasonry and Masonic Organizations

• The Order of the Eastern Star;

• Ancient and Accepted Freemasons;

Public Sector

• Black Police Officers Association;

• Black Firefighters Association;

• Latino Police Officers Association;

Costa Rica

• Chamber of Costa Rican Software Producers;

• Grupo Utopia International, S.A.;

Sponsoring Organizations

• Aerocasillas

Special Thanks To

• Prometheus 6 for Hosting This Site;

• Gregg Frug for volunteering his time as Webmaster;

• The numerous members of the Blogging Community who have taken the time to promote the project on their Weblogs;

• Nancy Gilliam and Killy DeVose, who have devoted numerous hours to promoting the project in the United States;

• Robert Mullins of Time Warner who has also worked to promote Project Apollonia in Corporate America;

• Sharon Greene, who has worked in the public sector to promote participation by public employees.

More to come.......