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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Blog host radio.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Hello and welcome to New Heights Educational Groups Podcast. My
name is Kaiden, a volunteer for New Heights Educational Group.
For more information on New Heights Educational Group, you can
reach us at ww dot New Heights Education dot org
or contact us via phone on four nine four one
nine seven eight six zero two four seven or emas
(01:04):
at New Heights Education at yahoo dot com. Today's show
is going to be on is going to be with
our special guest, Sam Noblayhouse. Hello, Sam, Hi, Kyden, how
are you today?
Speaker 3 (01:18):
I'm good?
Speaker 2 (01:18):
How are you great? And Sam A. Blayhouse is going
to share a little bit about her organization that she
founded all by herself. But first, Sam, why don't you
give us a brief bio about yourself?
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Sure, I'm from Freeville, New Jersey, and currently I'm a
senior at the Academy of Allied Health and Science, one
of the local high schools here in next June, New Jersey. Basically,
I entered high school wanting to go into some career
in medicine, but I wasn't quite sure what I wanted
to do. As the years went by, however, in my
(01:55):
high school I started to kind of define what I
really wanted to do, and that's nursing. So next year
I'll be at the University of Pennsylvania for the dual
degree program in Nursing and Healthcare Management from the School
of Nursing and the Wharton School. So I'll be heading
off to college in August. But I didn't say that.
(02:18):
Throughout my years in high school, volunteering has always been
a really big part of my life. Essentially, when I
was a freshman, I started volunteering at a local nursing
home at the hospital about a few minutes away from
my house, and I really liked that. I like working
in the hospital setting, I like being able to talk
(02:39):
to the patients and interact with other people, so I
started I got expanding my horizons with volunteering in general.
I then began volunteering at another local hospital that's next
to my school, Jersey Shore University Medical Center, and from
there I saw your maschnot org actually to look into
(03:03):
other volunteering efforts, but a lot of my volunteering kind
of made me open up my eyes to the needs
in the community and the needs in global areas as well,
such as in the Philippines, which is where my mom my
family is from so I started Resaria's Library in twenty
(03:25):
eleven and it's basically an organization with a mission to collect, organize.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Ship, and distribute books and school supplies to.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Schools and impoverished areas in the Philippines. I've been going
there quite a bit. I think last summer was my
ninth time being able to visit my home country, and
I really noticed that there was a big need for
books and school supplies because poverty and corruption and a
(03:55):
lack of funds for education, it really hinders the growth
of students else so it resarts every I was able
to corner a lot of support from the community, and
basically that's how it started. It started off really small,
but over the course of the past two years, it's
it's it's grown to a very big thing in my life.
(04:17):
So I'm really happy.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
About that, and I know that for those who aren't familiar,
I also go to the Academy of the Allied help
in Science. Sam and I are very good friends, and
when she started this venture, she asked me if I
would like to help her, and of course I said yes.
It was very exciting and I remember staying at you know,
(04:39):
at a Kumon, which is a tutoring place that her
parents owned, packing boxes and listening to music, and it
was just such a great time.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Oh yeah, yeah, it was.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
It was really fun in the beginning, and it was
great to be a part of that journey and seeing
where it's ended up now. So basically, I just wanted
to ask because I'm familiar, but I know the audience
may not be familiar. So you mentioned that as you
started to volunteer more, you became more aware of the
(05:12):
needs not only in the community in New Jersey, but
also in your home country at the Philippines. And so
would you say that was your inspiration for founding the
library or what got you to really think, well, this
is what I want to do specifically in my organization,
and you know what was what was the creative backing
(05:35):
behind that idea?
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Of course, So, like as I said, I've.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
Been able to I've been lucky enough to be able
to visit my home country multiple times in the past,
and a really big thing that I noticed was that
there was such a huge disparity between the wealthy.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
And the poor, as it is in a lot of
other third world countries. And I noticed that, you know,
here in the States a lot of time, a lot
of times, the resources we really take it for granted,
like the books that we have, the technology resources that
we own, and the school supplies that we're able to
(06:11):
use on a daily basis. We use so much of that,
and yet we really don't realize how important it is
as we grow as students and as people to have
these things. And so basically, as I kept visiting and stuff,
I came up with this idea back in twenty eleven,
and I thought, say, why don't we garner some support
(06:35):
from the community. A lot of times these books and
these school supplies, they're just being wasted. A lot of
schools after a few years discard their textbooks. A lot
of people have books lying around in their house. So
why don't I garner that support from the community, make
it a really good cause and be able to help
those kids the Philippines who don't really have the same
(06:56):
amount of resources or the same level of resources that
we have so readily available to us. So we started
off really small, and it's been growing pretty well. We
garnered a lot of support from local schools, local organizations.
But I really found it great because not only am
I very close with my family back in the Philippines,
(07:18):
who have also given me a ton of support. But
the name of my organization itself my grandmother on my
mother's side. Her name was Rosario Bettianas, and she was
actually an English teacher back in the Philippines. And so
coming from a background like that, education has always really
(07:38):
been a really important part in my family's life. She
was a teacher before she raised her kids, and my
parents were both teachers. So I feel like education has
always been a really, really big factor in my own life.
So I wanted to see how I could transpose that
(07:59):
important into my life and bring it to other people
as well. So that's basically how everything got started.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Awesome. And so I know you mentioned that you did
go to the Philippines recently last year. I think that
was the first time that you were able to distribute
books personally to those in need in the Philippines. So
I was wondering if you can explain kind of how
you set it up. I know we've we've packed books together,
(08:28):
it had shipped, but I was wondering if you can
just explain your experience when you went there. How did
you go about distributing these books and supplies when you
got there.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
I guess all starts at the beginning. Basically, you know,
you can go only do so much. You can plan
out going to sultiness for giving these books, but you
have to start off with a plan and you have
to figure out, okay, where am I going to run
donations drives with all of that stuff. So a lot
of planning went into the preliminary process of starting up
(09:00):
this whole organization. You and I like, you've helped me
a lot with this, and a lot of my other
friends have too. But we started contacting local schools, churches
of the local area. I know one of my very
first book drives was at Saint Rose of Lima, which
is a church that I went to growing up, and
a ton of other organizations and local establishments. So basically
(09:25):
the whole process was that we started writing to them,
and we started placing boxes and places, and a lot
more of people started hearing about it. We started up
the Facebook page, which I'll talk about later, and we
got a lot of support, a lot of people very
receptive to the idea. A lot of people donated their
books that they were lying around at home and their
school supplyfe and suddenly my school, the school that Cayden
(09:50):
then I go to Allen Health and Science, they heard about.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
My organization and it was actually.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Perfect timing because Caitan's actually on the strategic planning team
for our high school, and the strategic planning committee was
actually coming up with the idea to revamp the media center,
and the media center previous to this whole project was
filled with medical books and just you know, regular library
(10:16):
books that you would find in a high school. But
a lot of those books needed to be cleared out
for the for the renovations and the changes that would
be done. So our school was planning on discarding the books.
Now Canaan was gracious enough to be able to talk
to them as part of the committee and bring out
this idea that, Okay, Sam has this organization, and we
(10:40):
worked it out. We worked out the negotiations and everything
in the school thankfully was able to donate over a
thousand books to Rosario's library, which I was really grateful for.
So a majority of the books came from, like I said,
local schools, local church dress and a lot of them
came from the Media Center, and I was really really
(11:01):
happy about that.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
Because all these books, All.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
These books that were going to be discarded, we're going
to go to a good place. And I really felt
happy about that inside. So fast forward a few months
this past June. In late June of twenty twelve, I
went to the Philippines and I lived there for about
two months. And during my time there, I really wanted
(11:26):
to focus on not only saying my family, of course,
but I really wanted to focus on the core reason
as to why I started this organization and why I
started this whole project. So we contacted different schools in
the urban areas as well as the rural areas some
of the other rural provinces. And what we were able
(11:47):
to do was all the books that we attacked in
New Jersey. We've practiced in these they're called five boxes,
and they're really really big boxes that you can fit
a lot of stuff in and send them to the Philippines.
So after we were done packing, sorting, stamping them, arranging
them according to level, we put it in the boxes,
(12:08):
set them over. So by the time I was in
the Philippines, they were there already, and what we did
was we sorted them again according to the audience that
they were going to be cantering to. So we had
elementary school books, high school books, even medical books for colleges.
So we sorted them out there. Once I got there,
and my living room was completely filled to the brim
(12:29):
with books all over the floor and stuff. But we
started we started distributing to local schools. We started off
with one of the elementary schools in Tondo, which is
kind of a district of lower socioeconomic level in Manila,
which is the capital of the Philippines. So we started
(12:50):
off with that and as I went by, we started
contacting other schools and other schools and like, let's say,
the rural provinces. So it was really great. I got
to visit Bulla Khan, which is a rural province that
doesn't have as much educational resources as say the urban
cities do. But the reason it was so important to
(13:13):
my heart was that my grandmother Rosario, for whom the
organization was named, this was actually her hometown. And what
we got to do in Bulacan was that we kind
of noticed this elementary school in the area. It had
about five hundred kids in it, catering to grades kindergarten
to around fifth grade. But a big thing that we
(13:37):
noticed was their lack of a library itself, so we
did a lot of negotiations, but after a while we
were able to start the initiation of constructing a library there,
which was really great. So a huge fraction of the
books that we sent over to the Philippines we were
able to furnish this library with. We brought in shelves, tables,
(13:59):
and so essentially now that school has a really small
but starting to fill up with books library there. So
it's another school that we plan to supply more books
to in the future. But overall, I was really really
happy to be able to see the full impact of
(14:20):
what the project was because kind of like when you
start a project, you think, Okay, this is what I
really want to do, but when you finally see it
in front of your own eyes, you finally see everything
basically coming to fruition. It kind of makes you feel
really happy that you know, one man's trash is essentially
another man's treasure. I really feel like as a kid,
(14:42):
I read a lot of books. I loved reading as
a kid, and you know it might be cliche, but
books really conduct carry a lot of knowledge that tim
get people far in life, and that's kind of what
I want to do for those kids in the Philippines.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
And you say that you were able to establish kind
of a mini library within that school.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Yeah, yeah, And so.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
I know that you mentioned that you were able to
pull a lot of the school together. So how did
you figure out how to distribute like based on who
needed what?
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Like?
Speaker 2 (15:18):
How are you able to cover so much ground in
the two months that you that you lived there, Because
that's the kind a cinary to be able to contact
all of these places that are need of books and
then to organize the distribution of these supplies and things
like that.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Yeah, definitely, a lot of the schools of the area.
We kind of targeted, basically the ones that were in,
like I said, socioeconomically depressed areas. Like the first elementary
school that we went to, it had about I want
to say, over five thousand kids from kids are going
(15:58):
into eighth grade. But the big thing was that their library.
I actually went to visit it. Their library was maybe
not even as big as some of our own kitchens,
which is very, very shocking because you think, Okay, there
are all these kids here, but where are the resources,
where are they where are they filed down their knowledge?
(16:19):
Like I noticed that there was a big, big lack.
So I was able to contact all of these schools.
And my uncle is part of Rotary Club of Manila,
and Rotary Club is an organization that exists here too.
They basically their whole focus is going service to other people.
(16:40):
So he was a part of the Rotary Club of
Manila chapter and I was able to meet a lot
of people in the club, some of the fellow club members,
and they were able to recommend a lot of places
where I could, you know, distribute the books and everything.
So as you did that, we started communicating with everyone.
Based on how many books that were sent over. By
(17:03):
the time I was in the Philippines, I want to
say there were over I want to say there were
over two thousand books that were already there. So what
we did was we took those schools and we based
kind of on population, and we basically took the books
and we made it proportionate to I mean, how big
(17:24):
the schools were and stuff like that. Like, of course,
we gave like a lot more books to the school
with five thousand kids as opposed to like the school
with five hundred kids. But I found that even though
even though there were so many places that we had
to distribute to. We were able to get a grade
fraction of the books to each of those schools. And
(17:45):
although it was my first time going over there, even
though we have distributed to those schools already, we keep
in contact with those schools as well, so that the
next shifts that come over can also go to those
schools too, like the Bulakan School to furnish their library
to still lit up with more books, because clearly there's
(18:06):
a really big need for it.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Awesome, and so I know that when we used to
pack books, we did a little bit differently than when
I recently helped you out a couple of weeks ago.
So I was wondering if you could share with the
audience some things that you've learned from the experience, because
obviously I believe that it was your first, you know,
organization that you founded by yourself, so obviously going into it,
(18:30):
you're working out the rough patches and things like that.
So it would be good to share with the audience,
and especially if people were interested in volunteering and doing
things like this, some of the things that you've learned
in doing this and things that you've corrected or improved
upon in the proast.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
Of course. Yeah, Like as you said, when we first started,
Kita was with me Aunus from the very beginning, we
would get the donations, but we were so overwhelmed because
we literally started off thinking that we weren't I mean,
we didn't think we're gonna get like thousands of books
in the beginning. But as the time went on, we
(19:12):
realized that we were having this big influx of books
getting in from the donation drive. So we would go
to my parents' workplace and this is where we packed
all the books. We'd put them all. I think the
very first time we packed, we filled up a U
haul truck full of the books. Were very, very overwhelmed
(19:34):
with everything, but so we basically expressed them all throughout
the room and we were like, oh, my goodness, how
are we going to do this. We have stamps, little
stamps that we stamp each book with this says Resartus
Library on it. And especially we had to stamp all
the books and get it into boxes and stuff, which
(19:56):
is a tedious thing to do, but with a lot
of hell we were able to accomplish this. But one
of the things that I noticed was that when we
were packing them in our first shipment, I guess we
weren't as attentive to sorting the books themselves as opposed
to making sure that, okay, the books that go to
(20:18):
elementary schools are going to be in this box. It
was kind of it was kind of like rough It
was like a rough patch with organizationals with the organizational
process essentially. But as the time went on, and as
we've been doing this recently, we've realized to kind of
sort them in a preliminary fashion, like these are going
(20:41):
to go to colleges, these are going to go to
high schools, these are going to go to elementary schools.
And it's become really a lot more efficient the whole
counting process, because we do count every single book that
goes into the boxes. So in that sense, I can
say that I learned a lot. In a different sense, though,
I just say that volunteering, I mean, no matter if
(21:04):
it's with Rozaris Library or with other things, communication skills
are really really key. When you want to do a
whole lot of volunteering. I feel like you it's only
so much to want to help other people, but you
really have to put yourself out there kind of break
out of your comfort zone and be able to communicate
(21:26):
with other people because you know, like in the real world,
will need to communicate with other people in the workplace
and stuff. But communication skills are really key when especially
when you're contacting people you want to work with, just
like I didn't contacting people to help out, just like
I contactedicated and a lot of my other friends. So
I can say that volunteering has really helped my communication
(21:48):
skills put them on a whole new level. I think
without without it, I probably wouldn't have changed as much.
But I can say that I've definitely improved in that
way in an addition to the efficiency of the packing process.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Awesome, Okay, that's great. It's I mean, especially you know,
because these things are difficult obviously, especially for a teenager
to do by themselves, and so any kind of advice,
any encouragement and things like that is definitely great to
have for somebody who's just starting off. Yeah, because I know,
like maybe if you had more guidance and more advice,
(22:25):
maybe things would be more easier for you at the beginning.
But I know personally you didn't have you know, two
terrible time. But it's always it's always good to share.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
It's always a little rough story beginning because you know
what you want to do, but you don't know exactly
how you want to go about it. And lucky I was.
Luckily I would be able to get support to my parents,
who helped a lot in the process as well, giving
the advice and everything. But yeah, I can honestly say
that in the beginning, if you're doing a whole startup
like this, you'll have rough patches at the beginning. You'll
(22:58):
have you know, maybe not as great of efficiency as
you life too, but it's a really big not only
are you helping other people, but it's a really really
big learning process for you and those involved. I could
really attest to that because I've learned quite a bit
about myself and about you know, the whole social responsibility
that we have as you know, future global citizens. Essentially great.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Great, So now I want to turn it over to
ways that people can help. Especially. One of the reasons
why I wanted to invite you on the show is
not only to have you share a little bit something
about your accomplishments in the organization that you've developed essentially
pretty much by yourself with the help of you know,
(23:43):
some of our schools and me and some of our friends.
But I also wanted to get the message out there.
I wanted you to be able to advertise your organization
and get more support from different communities. So I was
wondering if you could share with the audience is that
they may be able to help, even if they're not
(24:04):
living necessarily in New Jersey or nearby, the ways that
they can help or spread the word about Rosaria's Library.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
Thank you, Kaden. Yeah, of course, it's all to be
really great. I think the usure is the area, like
Kayden said, but there are tons of ways that you
can help and spread the word. We are on Facebook actually,
if all you do is search Rosarius Library and Facebook,
or you could go to www dot Facebook dot com
(24:32):
slash Rosario's Library without a space of course, and all there.
We have a lot of pictures, we have a lot
of information as to current donation drives that we're having
and all that stuff. But you can get updated and
share photos and everything. I find that social media has
(24:52):
gradually developed into something that we can really use as
a tool in order to help other people, like we
have the whole well, you know, social media spectrum, you know,
wasting time on Facebook, as they say, But like I've
noticed that with the growth of a lot of these
social media websites, we're able to do a lot with
spreading the word about our social responsibility and charity and
(25:14):
local nonprofits. So if you want to visit, like I said,
you just searched Rosario's library and Facebook, check out the
pictures that we have there. And if you are in
the New Jersey area, you can contact me anytime on
the page, or you can contact me on my cell
phone which is seven through two six four to two
one nine seven two. So those are the few of
(25:35):
the ways that you can help spread the word. Maybe
like the page to share it with your friends. Any
four book support is honestly.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Very very much appreciated, awesome, And so while we have
a little bit of time left, I would just want
to answer, do you have any remaining thoughts of inside
or wisdom or words of encouragement that you would like
to share? I guess information to the audience, but.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
Definitely, like I know a lot of people like me,
we're teenagers, and you know, we're not exactly the workplace yet,
We're not quite we're not quite adult on quite children.
But a lot of people are wondering how they can
help in some days like I'm just a teenager, like
how can I possibly make a change in the world.
(26:24):
But really you don't have to do You don't have
to go to like extremes, you don't have to you know,
save the world in like one day. But all that
really is to it is, you know, you have to
address a need, find a need in your community that
is really close to your heart. Personally, education and my
home country are really really close to my heart. So
(26:46):
you want to make sure that it's very important to
you whatever volunteering things that you're doing. And I think
one thing really sort of remember is that you really
need to take initiatives if you really want to help,
you know, be innovative, contact other people. If you find
(27:09):
that need in your community. Start off something like don't
be afraid to break out of your comfort zone because
I find that you know, sometimes we're like, oh, I
don't know if this is going to work out, but
you know, nine times out of ten, the people who
tried are the ones who are happier than the people
who said, oh, maybe it won't work out. So that's
(27:29):
that's pretty much. The big advice that I can give
definitely break out of your comfort zone and if something
is very very important to you, just know that nothing's
impossible in the world of being able to help other people.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Well, Sam, I just want to say thank you so
so much for coming online with us. I really appreciate
it you coming online and I'm so happy to have
been able to feature you and your organization on our show.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
Thank you, Kaden. Thanks so much for talking to me today.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
No problem, have a great day you too. Okay. So
our next show, the March twenty third, is going to
be on the Christian Athletics League of America, so stay
tuned for that. I hope to see you there. Thank
you once again to Sam the Blahas for joining us
this week, and to Pamela Clark, who oversees our radio venture,
(28:19):
who is the founder and director of New Heights Educational Group.
Once again, thank you audience as well for tuning in
and we hope to continue to receive support from you.
And thank you again.
Speaker 5 (28:56):
I am so so weary when troubles come and my
heart burden be.
Speaker 6 (29:12):
Then I am stained and wait here inside till you come.
Speaker 5 (29:24):
And said wild with me.
Speaker 6 (29:29):
You raised me hard so I can stand.
Speaker 3 (29:35):
On my.
Speaker 5 (29:38):
You.
Speaker 6 (29:38):
Raise me hard to war, come stormy sea. I am
strong when I am on your sholder.
Speaker 5 (29:56):
Raise me hard to more. How can be
Blog host radio.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Hello and welcome to New Heights Educational Groups Podcast. My
name is Kaiden, a volunteer for New Heights Educational Group.
For more information on New Heights Educational Group, you can
reach us at ww dot New Heights Education dot org
or contact us via phone on four nine four one
nine seven eight six zero two four seven or emas
(01:04):
at New Heights Education at yahoo dot com. Today's show
is going to be on is going to be with
our special guest, Sam Noblayhouse. Hello, Sam, Hi, Kyden, how
are you today?
Speaker 3 (01:18):
I'm good?
Speaker 2 (01:18):
How are you great? And Sam A. Blayhouse is going
to share a little bit about her organization that she
founded all by herself. But first, Sam, why don't you
give us a brief bio about yourself?
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Sure, I'm from Freeville, New Jersey, and currently I'm a
senior at the Academy of Allied Health and Science, one
of the local high schools here in next June, New Jersey. Basically,
I entered high school wanting to go into some career
in medicine, but I wasn't quite sure what I wanted
to do. As the years went by, however, in my
(01:55):
high school I started to kind of define what I
really wanted to do, and that's nursing. So next year
I'll be at the University of Pennsylvania for the dual
degree program in Nursing and Healthcare Management from the School
of Nursing and the Wharton School. So I'll be heading
off to college in August. But I didn't say that.
(02:18):
Throughout my years in high school, volunteering has always been
a really big part of my life. Essentially, when I
was a freshman, I started volunteering at a local nursing
home at the hospital about a few minutes away from
my house, and I really liked that. I like working
in the hospital setting, I like being able to talk
(02:39):
to the patients and interact with other people, so I
started I got expanding my horizons with volunteering in general.
I then began volunteering at another local hospital that's next
to my school, Jersey Shore University Medical Center, and from
there I saw your maschnot org actually to look into
(03:03):
other volunteering efforts, but a lot of my volunteering kind
of made me open up my eyes to the needs
in the community and the needs in global areas as well,
such as in the Philippines, which is where my mom my
family is from so I started Resaria's Library in twenty
(03:25):
eleven and it's basically an organization with a mission to collect, organize.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Ship, and distribute books and school supplies to.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Schools and impoverished areas in the Philippines. I've been going
there quite a bit. I think last summer was my
ninth time being able to visit my home country, and
I really noticed that there was a big need for
books and school supplies because poverty and corruption and a
(03:55):
lack of funds for education, it really hinders the growth
of students else so it resarts every I was able
to corner a lot of support from the community, and
basically that's how it started. It started off really small,
but over the course of the past two years, it's
it's it's grown to a very big thing in my life.
(04:17):
So I'm really happy.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
About that, and I know that for those who aren't familiar,
I also go to the Academy of the Allied help
in Science. Sam and I are very good friends, and
when she started this venture, she asked me if I
would like to help her, and of course I said yes.
It was very exciting and I remember staying at you know,
(04:39):
at a Kumon, which is a tutoring place that her
parents owned, packing boxes and listening to music, and it
was just such a great time.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Oh yeah, yeah, it was.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
It was really fun in the beginning, and it was
great to be a part of that journey and seeing
where it's ended up now. So basically, I just wanted
to ask because I'm familiar, but I know the audience
may not be familiar. So you mentioned that as you
started to volunteer more, you became more aware of the
(05:12):
needs not only in the community in New Jersey, but
also in your home country at the Philippines. And so
would you say that was your inspiration for founding the
library or what got you to really think, well, this
is what I want to do specifically in my organization,
and you know what was what was the creative backing
(05:35):
behind that idea?
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Of course, So, like as I said, I've.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
Been able to I've been lucky enough to be able
to visit my home country multiple times in the past,
and a really big thing that I noticed was that
there was such a huge disparity between the wealthy.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
And the poor, as it is in a lot of
other third world countries. And I noticed that, you know,
here in the States a lot of time, a lot
of times, the resources we really take it for granted,
like the books that we have, the technology resources that
we own, and the school supplies that we're able to
(06:11):
use on a daily basis. We use so much of that,
and yet we really don't realize how important it is
as we grow as students and as people to have
these things. And so basically, as I kept visiting and stuff,
I came up with this idea back in twenty eleven,
and I thought, say, why don't we garner some support
(06:35):
from the community. A lot of times these books and
these school supplies, they're just being wasted. A lot of
schools after a few years discard their textbooks. A lot
of people have books lying around in their house. So
why don't I garner that support from the community, make
it a really good cause and be able to help
those kids the Philippines who don't really have the same
(06:56):
amount of resources or the same level of resources that
we have so readily available to us. So we started
off really small, and it's been growing pretty well. We
garnered a lot of support from local schools, local organizations.
But I really found it great because not only am
I very close with my family back in the Philippines,
(07:18):
who have also given me a ton of support. But
the name of my organization itself my grandmother on my
mother's side. Her name was Rosario Bettianas, and she was
actually an English teacher back in the Philippines. And so
coming from a background like that, education has always really
(07:38):
been a really important part in my family's life. She
was a teacher before she raised her kids, and my
parents were both teachers. So I feel like education has
always been a really, really big factor in my own life.
So I wanted to see how I could transpose that
(07:59):
important into my life and bring it to other people
as well. So that's basically how everything got started.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Awesome. And so I know you mentioned that you did
go to the Philippines recently last year. I think that
was the first time that you were able to distribute
books personally to those in need in the Philippines. So
I was wondering if you can explain kind of how
you set it up. I know we've we've packed books together,
(08:28):
it had shipped, but I was wondering if you can
just explain your experience when you went there. How did
you go about distributing these books and supplies when you
got there.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
I guess all starts at the beginning. Basically, you know,
you can go only do so much. You can plan
out going to sultiness for giving these books, but you
have to start off with a plan and you have
to figure out, okay, where am I going to run
donations drives with all of that stuff. So a lot
of planning went into the preliminary process of starting up
(09:00):
this whole organization. You and I like, you've helped me
a lot with this, and a lot of my other
friends have too. But we started contacting local schools, churches
of the local area. I know one of my very
first book drives was at Saint Rose of Lima, which
is a church that I went to growing up, and
a ton of other organizations and local establishments. So basically
(09:25):
the whole process was that we started writing to them,
and we started placing boxes and places, and a lot
more of people started hearing about it. We started up
the Facebook page, which I'll talk about later, and we
got a lot of support, a lot of people very
receptive to the idea. A lot of people donated their
books that they were lying around at home and their
school supplyfe and suddenly my school, the school that Cayden
(09:50):
then I go to Allen Health and Science, they heard about.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
My organization and it was actually.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Perfect timing because Caitan's actually on the strategic planning team
for our high school, and the strategic planning committee was
actually coming up with the idea to revamp the media center,
and the media center previous to this whole project was
filled with medical books and just you know, regular library
(10:16):
books that you would find in a high school. But
a lot of those books needed to be cleared out
for the for the renovations and the changes that would
be done. So our school was planning on discarding the books.
Now Canaan was gracious enough to be able to talk
to them as part of the committee and bring out
this idea that, Okay, Sam has this organization, and we
(10:40):
worked it out. We worked out the negotiations and everything
in the school thankfully was able to donate over a
thousand books to Rosario's library, which I was really grateful for.
So a majority of the books came from, like I said,
local schools, local church dress and a lot of them
came from the Media Center, and I was really really
(11:01):
happy about that.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
Because all these books, All.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
These books that were going to be discarded, we're going
to go to a good place. And I really felt
happy about that inside. So fast forward a few months
this past June. In late June of twenty twelve, I
went to the Philippines and I lived there for about
two months. And during my time there, I really wanted
(11:26):
to focus on not only saying my family, of course,
but I really wanted to focus on the core reason
as to why I started this organization and why I
started this whole project. So we contacted different schools in
the urban areas as well as the rural areas some
of the other rural provinces. And what we were able
(11:47):
to do was all the books that we attacked in
New Jersey. We've practiced in these they're called five boxes,
and they're really really big boxes that you can fit
a lot of stuff in and send them to the Philippines.
So after we were done packing, sorting, stamping them, arranging
them according to level, we put it in the boxes,
(12:08):
set them over. So by the time I was in
the Philippines, they were there already, and what we did
was we sorted them again according to the audience that
they were going to be cantering to. So we had
elementary school books, high school books, even medical books for colleges.
So we sorted them out there. Once I got there,
and my living room was completely filled to the brim
(12:29):
with books all over the floor and stuff. But we
started we started distributing to local schools. We started off
with one of the elementary schools in Tondo, which is
kind of a district of lower socioeconomic level in Manila,
which is the capital of the Philippines. So we started
(12:50):
off with that and as I went by, we started
contacting other schools and other schools and like, let's say,
the rural provinces. So it was really great. I got
to visit Bulla Khan, which is a rural province that
doesn't have as much educational resources as say the urban
cities do. But the reason it was so important to
(13:13):
my heart was that my grandmother Rosario, for whom the
organization was named, this was actually her hometown. And what
we got to do in Bulacan was that we kind
of noticed this elementary school in the area. It had
about five hundred kids in it, catering to grades kindergarten
to around fifth grade. But a big thing that we
(13:37):
noticed was their lack of a library itself, so we
did a lot of negotiations, but after a while we
were able to start the initiation of constructing a library there,
which was really great. So a huge fraction of the
books that we sent over to the Philippines we were
able to furnish this library with. We brought in shelves, tables,
(13:59):
and so essentially now that school has a really small
but starting to fill up with books library there. So
it's another school that we plan to supply more books
to in the future. But overall, I was really really
happy to be able to see the full impact of
(14:20):
what the project was because kind of like when you
start a project, you think, Okay, this is what I
really want to do, but when you finally see it
in front of your own eyes, you finally see everything
basically coming to fruition. It kind of makes you feel
really happy that you know, one man's trash is essentially
another man's treasure. I really feel like as a kid,
(14:42):
I read a lot of books. I loved reading as
a kid, and you know it might be cliche, but
books really conduct carry a lot of knowledge that tim
get people far in life, and that's kind of what
I want to do for those kids in the Philippines.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
And you say that you were able to establish kind
of a mini library within that school.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Yeah, yeah, And so.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
I know that you mentioned that you were able to
pull a lot of the school together. So how did
you figure out how to distribute like based on who
needed what?
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Like?
Speaker 2 (15:18):
How are you able to cover so much ground in
the two months that you that you lived there, Because
that's the kind a cinary to be able to contact
all of these places that are need of books and
then to organize the distribution of these supplies and things
like that.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Yeah, definitely, a lot of the schools of the area.
We kind of targeted, basically the ones that were in,
like I said, socioeconomically depressed areas. Like the first elementary
school that we went to, it had about I want
to say, over five thousand kids from kids are going
(15:58):
into eighth grade. But the big thing was that their library.
I actually went to visit it. Their library was maybe
not even as big as some of our own kitchens,
which is very, very shocking because you think, Okay, there
are all these kids here, but where are the resources,
where are they where are they filed down their knowledge?
(16:19):
Like I noticed that there was a big, big lack.
So I was able to contact all of these schools.
And my uncle is part of Rotary Club of Manila,
and Rotary Club is an organization that exists here too.
They basically their whole focus is going service to other people.
(16:40):
So he was a part of the Rotary Club of
Manila chapter and I was able to meet a lot
of people in the club, some of the fellow club members,
and they were able to recommend a lot of places
where I could, you know, distribute the books and everything.
So as you did that, we started communicating with everyone.
Based on how many books that were sent over. By
(17:03):
the time I was in the Philippines, I want to
say there were over I want to say there were
over two thousand books that were already there. So what
we did was we took those schools and we based
kind of on population, and we basically took the books
and we made it proportionate to I mean, how big
(17:24):
the schools were and stuff like that. Like, of course,
we gave like a lot more books to the school
with five thousand kids as opposed to like the school
with five hundred kids. But I found that even though
even though there were so many places that we had
to distribute to. We were able to get a grade
fraction of the books to each of those schools. And
(17:45):
although it was my first time going over there, even
though we have distributed to those schools already, we keep
in contact with those schools as well, so that the
next shifts that come over can also go to those
schools too, like the Bulakan School to furnish their library
to still lit up with more books, because clearly there's
(18:06):
a really big need for it.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Awesome, and so I know that when we used to
pack books, we did a little bit differently than when
I recently helped you out a couple of weeks ago.
So I was wondering if you could share with the
audience some things that you've learned from the experience, because
obviously I believe that it was your first, you know,
organization that you founded by yourself, so obviously going into it,
(18:30):
you're working out the rough patches and things like that.
So it would be good to share with the audience,
and especially if people were interested in volunteering and doing
things like this, some of the things that you've learned
in doing this and things that you've corrected or improved
upon in the proast.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
Of course. Yeah, Like as you said, when we first started,
Kita was with me Aunus from the very beginning, we
would get the donations, but we were so overwhelmed because
we literally started off thinking that we weren't I mean,
we didn't think we're gonna get like thousands of books
in the beginning. But as the time went on, we
(19:12):
realized that we were having this big influx of books
getting in from the donation drive. So we would go
to my parents' workplace and this is where we packed
all the books. We'd put them all. I think the
very first time we packed, we filled up a U
haul truck full of the books. Were very, very overwhelmed
(19:34):
with everything, but so we basically expressed them all throughout
the room and we were like, oh, my goodness, how
are we going to do this. We have stamps, little
stamps that we stamp each book with this says Resartus
Library on it. And especially we had to stamp all
the books and get it into boxes and stuff, which
(19:56):
is a tedious thing to do, but with a lot
of hell we were able to accomplish this. But one
of the things that I noticed was that when we
were packing them in our first shipment, I guess we
weren't as attentive to sorting the books themselves as opposed
to making sure that, okay, the books that go to
(20:18):
elementary schools are going to be in this box. It
was kind of it was kind of like rough It
was like a rough patch with organizationals with the organizational
process essentially. But as the time went on, and as
we've been doing this recently, we've realized to kind of
sort them in a preliminary fashion, like these are going
(20:41):
to go to colleges, these are going to go to
high schools, these are going to go to elementary schools.
And it's become really a lot more efficient the whole
counting process, because we do count every single book that
goes into the boxes. So in that sense, I can
say that I learned a lot. In a different sense, though,
I just say that volunteering, I mean, no matter if
(21:04):
it's with Rozaris Library or with other things, communication skills
are really really key. When you want to do a
whole lot of volunteering. I feel like you it's only
so much to want to help other people, but you
really have to put yourself out there kind of break
out of your comfort zone and be able to communicate
(21:26):
with other people because you know, like in the real world,
will need to communicate with other people in the workplace
and stuff. But communication skills are really key when especially
when you're contacting people you want to work with, just
like I didn't contacting people to help out, just like
I contactedicated and a lot of my other friends. So
I can say that volunteering has really helped my communication
(21:48):
skills put them on a whole new level. I think
without without it, I probably wouldn't have changed as much.
But I can say that I've definitely improved in that
way in an addition to the efficiency of the packing process.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Awesome, Okay, that's great. It's I mean, especially you know,
because these things are difficult obviously, especially for a teenager
to do by themselves, and so any kind of advice,
any encouragement and things like that is definitely great to
have for somebody who's just starting off. Yeah, because I know,
like maybe if you had more guidance and more advice,
(22:25):
maybe things would be more easier for you at the beginning.
But I know personally you didn't have you know, two
terrible time. But it's always it's always good to share.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
It's always a little rough story beginning because you know
what you want to do, but you don't know exactly
how you want to go about it. And lucky I was.
Luckily I would be able to get support to my parents,
who helped a lot in the process as well, giving
the advice and everything. But yeah, I can honestly say
that in the beginning, if you're doing a whole startup
like this, you'll have rough patches at the beginning. You'll
(22:58):
have you know, maybe not as great of efficiency as
you life too, but it's a really big not only
are you helping other people, but it's a really really
big learning process for you and those involved. I could
really attest to that because I've learned quite a bit
about myself and about you know, the whole social responsibility
that we have as you know, future global citizens. Essentially great.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Great, So now I want to turn it over to
ways that people can help. Especially. One of the reasons
why I wanted to invite you on the show is
not only to have you share a little bit something
about your accomplishments in the organization that you've developed essentially
pretty much by yourself with the help of you know,
(23:43):
some of our schools and me and some of our friends.
But I also wanted to get the message out there.
I wanted you to be able to advertise your organization
and get more support from different communities. So I was
wondering if you could share with the audience is that
they may be able to help, even if they're not
(24:04):
living necessarily in New Jersey or nearby, the ways that
they can help or spread the word about Rosaria's Library.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
Thank you, Kaden. Yeah, of course, it's all to be
really great. I think the usure is the area, like
Kayden said, but there are tons of ways that you
can help and spread the word. We are on Facebook actually,
if all you do is search Rosarius Library and Facebook,
or you could go to www dot Facebook dot com
(24:32):
slash Rosario's Library without a space of course, and all there.
We have a lot of pictures, we have a lot
of information as to current donation drives that we're having
and all that stuff. But you can get updated and
share photos and everything. I find that social media has
(24:52):
gradually developed into something that we can really use as
a tool in order to help other people, like we
have the whole well, you know, social media spectrum, you know,
wasting time on Facebook, as they say, But like I've
noticed that with the growth of a lot of these
social media websites, we're able to do a lot with
spreading the word about our social responsibility and charity and
(25:14):
local nonprofits. So if you want to visit, like I said,
you just searched Rosario's library and Facebook, check out the
pictures that we have there. And if you are in
the New Jersey area, you can contact me anytime on
the page, or you can contact me on my cell
phone which is seven through two six four to two
one nine seven two. So those are the few of
(25:35):
the ways that you can help spread the word. Maybe
like the page to share it with your friends. Any
four book support is honestly.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Very very much appreciated, awesome, And so while we have
a little bit of time left, I would just want
to answer, do you have any remaining thoughts of inside
or wisdom or words of encouragement that you would like
to share? I guess information to the audience, but.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
Definitely, like I know a lot of people like me,
we're teenagers, and you know, we're not exactly the workplace yet,
We're not quite we're not quite adult on quite children.
But a lot of people are wondering how they can
help in some days like I'm just a teenager, like
how can I possibly make a change in the world.
(26:24):
But really you don't have to do You don't have
to go to like extremes, you don't have to you know,
save the world in like one day. But all that
really is to it is, you know, you have to
address a need, find a need in your community that
is really close to your heart. Personally, education and my
home country are really really close to my heart. So
(26:46):
you want to make sure that it's very important to
you whatever volunteering things that you're doing. And I think
one thing really sort of remember is that you really
need to take initiatives if you really want to help,
you know, be innovative, contact other people. If you find
(27:09):
that need in your community. Start off something like don't
be afraid to break out of your comfort zone because
I find that you know, sometimes we're like, oh, I
don't know if this is going to work out, but
you know, nine times out of ten, the people who
tried are the ones who are happier than the people
who said, oh, maybe it won't work out. So that's
(27:29):
that's pretty much. The big advice that I can give
definitely break out of your comfort zone and if something
is very very important to you, just know that nothing's
impossible in the world of being able to help other people.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Well, Sam, I just want to say thank you so
so much for coming online with us. I really appreciate
it you coming online and I'm so happy to have
been able to feature you and your organization on our show.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
Thank you, Kaden. Thanks so much for talking to me today.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
No problem, have a great day you too. Okay. So
our next show, the March twenty third, is going to
be on the Christian Athletics League of America, so stay
tuned for that. I hope to see you there. Thank
you once again to Sam the Blahas for joining us
this week, and to Pamela Clark, who oversees our radio venture,
(28:19):
who is the founder and director of New Heights Educational Group.
Once again, thank you audience as well for tuning in
and we hope to continue to receive support from you.
And thank you again.
Speaker 5 (28:56):
I am so so weary when troubles come and my
heart burden be.
Speaker 6 (29:12):
Then I am stained and wait here inside till you come.
Speaker 5 (29:24):
And said wild with me.
Speaker 6 (29:29):
You raised me hard so I can stand.
Speaker 3 (29:35):
On my.
Speaker 5 (29:38):
You.
Speaker 6 (29:38):
Raise me hard to war, come stormy sea. I am
strong when I am on your sholder.
Speaker 5 (29:56):
Raise me hard to more. How can be
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