Members of the Eta Gamma Chapter of Phi Theta Kappa at Coffeyville Community College utilized their Thanksgiving vacation, November 18-23, to participate in two international service activities, The African Library Project in New Orleans and Operation Christmas Child in Duluth, Georgia.  These projects were a part of the chapter’s Honors in Action Project, the Culture of Competition with emphasis upon issues in education.

In New Orleans, members unloaded the twenty-nine boxes filled with more than 2,000 children’s books the chapter collected.  Assisting the members was Videl Rogers, a long-time employee who stated that donations of medicine, books and clothes are shipped from the warehouse to Africa, Central America, and the Caribbean.  Josiah Wilson, warehouse director, shared with the students that Missionary Expediters stores the books for Chris Bradshaw, President of the African Library Project, who solicits gently used books for children, specifies the types of books needed, and recruits helpers in Africa to unpack and shelve the books once they arrive.  Each carton of books carries a project identification number with a final destination of shipment.  Missionary Expediters tracks the shipment from New Orleans to its port and the consignee who receives the shipment.

The Eta Gamma members’ books will take approximately 90 days to reach Ghana where they will supply 1,000 books each for two new school libraries.  Children there are taught to read English in third grade.  The books were collected through their Project Graduation last May and private donations.  The African Library Project aims to improve literacy in African countries by improving the competitiveness that these countries have with the rest of the world in literacy and education.  Through creating libraries in these African countries, they will be able to be actively involved in the competition in education throughout the world.

Another highlight of the Thanksgiving tour was working in the international warehouse of Operation Christmas Child at Duluth, Georgia.  Eta Gamma members processed and inspected gift-filled shoe boxes that are sent world-wide to children who otherwise would not experience the joy of receiving a gift at Christmas.  Members participating in the honors study tour were Kyle Darnell, Chetopa; Mercades Price, Caney; Eric Mueller, Coffeyville; Aaron Neely and Kacie Serrault, Topeka.

Other adventures along the way included a tour of the University of Southern Mississippi and the historic district of ante-bellum homes in Hattiesburg, Mississippi and the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa.  In Kennesaw, Georgia, the students also met with Stephanie Watts, Georgia’s School Counselor of the Year, who did a comparative presentation on magnet and chapter schools.  In Kennesaw, the students also visited the Museum of History and Holocaust Education at Kennesaw State University and the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History where they saw the locomotive, the General, of the Great Locomotive Chase.  Students also stopped in Jackson, Mississippi, to tour Phi Theta Kappa’s International Headquarters building, the Center for Excellence.