031 MTSU PROFESSOR STRIVES TO HELP JAMAICAN ELEMENTARY’S STUDENTS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Aug. 5, 2007
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Lisa L. Rollins, 615-898-2919 or lrollins@mtsu.edu

MTSU PROFESSOR STRIVES TO HELP JAMAICAN ELEMENTARY’S STUDENTS
Donated Books, Musical Instruments, Sports Equipment Top Needs, Professor Says

(MURFREESBORO, Tenn.)—For William “Bill” Whitehill, to give is a gift within itself, and ever since visiting Jamaica in fall 2006, he’s been on a self-appointed mission to give all he can to a special group of youngsters.
An associate professor of health and human performance at MTSU, Whitehill said he stumbled across the children and their plight during a happenstance visit to the John Rollins Success Primary School in Montego Bay, where he was astounded to find a bookless library.
“They had absolutely no books in the school … and it had been open for 18 months at that time,” he recalled, still sounding surprised about the find.
From that point forward, Whitehill said he made up his mind to change things for the school and its learners, and since then, he’s worked with the school’s principal, Yvonne Miller-Wisdom, to help fill the library’s shelves with educational and reading materials, especially books.
Immediately upon his return from Jamaica, Whitehill quickly gathered and shipped 50 pounds of books to the school. Not long thereafter, he said, he collected and shipped another 1,225-plus pounds of books, with help from MTSU community members who learned of his service project.
Then, with additional donations from the campus and local community, Whitehill was able to collect another 2,700 pounds of books, including Braille Bibles, to send to the school.
Although the shipment process takes time, already some of the books have reached the school and its library.
“I appreciate so much the effort (that has been) put into ensuring that my students are literate,” Miller-Wisdom said in a recent interview. “We will continue to use the (donated) books to enhance learning, (because) one of our goals is to get students literate.
“There are some students who are not able to read, and I know that the books will be used to motivated these students to read. … The children are enjoying them and request for more of these books to be read to them as well as to be put into the library.”
Additionally, the principal said, some of the donated books have been placed in a special reading room, where students are allowed to leave their normal class schedule each day to spend more time reading.
“We will also place some of the books in each classroom so that the students will have easy access to their own class library,” Miller-Wisdom explained, “(but the) majority of the books will be placed in the school library.”
As it turns out, books are just the beginning of the children’s basic school needs, said Whitehill, who also hoping to assist the elementary in acquiring donated sports and music equipment, educational software, and if possible, perhaps even computers.
“Anything and everything, used as well as new, is what they need; that’s what I’ve learned,” he said. “The kids don’t have the luxuries that we have (such as) full air-

conditioning and every video game that comes out … but they do play outside. They don’t have the best sports equipment and could definitely use some, including balls (of all varieties), gloves and anything else.”
Although he’s tried to secure used sports equipment from the university to donate to the school’s children, Whitehill said he’s since learned that National Collegiate Athletic Association rules prohibit him from donating such items to the Jamaican school.
“It’s an NCAA violation … to give away things to an elementary school that’s not within 35 miles of your university,” he explained, “so we won’t be doing that so that (MTSU) stays in compliance with those regulations.”
The health professor did, however, manage to send a basketball of his own to the school in one of his shipments.
“The ball that was sent is being used to help us prepare for the Inter-Primary School basketball tournament, which is currently on its way,” Miller-Wisdom said. “We are very grateful for these donations and look forward to them … (and they) are being used extensively in grades one through six.”
Hence, Whitehill said, in addition to his ongoing book-collection efforts, he’s now seeking donations of sports equipment and musical instruments for the youngsters, all of which will be sent to the Rollins school by Whitehill with the help of Food for the Poor, a nonprofit organization.
According to information on its Web site (www.foodforthepoor.com), the 25-year-old corporation’s mission is to improve the health, economic, social and spiritual conditions of impoverished people throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Whitehill said he came across the group when he began searching for an organization to help him ship materials to the school, and currently, the group will deliver shipments directly to the Montego Bay elementary free of charge once they reach its Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., location.
As for getting the donations from Murfreesboro to Florida, Whitehill—when pressed—concedes that to date he’s expended about $1,000 from his own pocket to ship some 4,000 pounds of books to the Jamaica. However, he’s honored to have been able to do so.
“Morally, it’s just the right thing to do,” Whitehill said, matter-of-factly. “They have a need, and we are a land of plenty.”
To learn more about Whitehill’s donation efforts on behalf of the school via a TV segment from July’s “Middle Tennessee Record” cable program, please access http://www.mtsu.edu/~proffice/MT_Record/mtr0706_June07/MTR0707-YouTube-Jamaica.html.
For information on making a donation to the school, please contact the Department of Health and Human Performance at MTSU at 615-898-2811.

—30—


• ATTENTION, MEDIA—To secure jpeg images of the school and some of its staff and children for editorial use, or to request an interview with Whitehill, please e-mail your request to Lisa L. Rollins in the Office of News and Public Affairs at MTSU at lrollins@mtsu.edu.

**Please note: If the aforementioned feature release is used “as is,” please provide byline credit to Lisa L. Rollins and Rometrius North. (Miss North is an INROADS intern in the NPA office and mass communication major at MTSU.)