Thai Book Drive Project an enormous success
Thai Book Drive -09-28-2005
 

PRESS RELEASE

Thai Book Drive Project an enormous success
Si Sa Ket, Thailand, September 28th, 2005 – Thai Book Drive, an ambitious project to collect, ship and hand deliver Elementary schoolbooks to students in one of the most remote and inhospitable locations in the world, is a complete and enormous success.

Andrew Titley, a 17 year-old high school student from Oceanside, NY, the founder of Thai Book Drive, has been spending the months of July and August 2005 in Si Sa Ket hand-delivering over 60,000 books to elementary schools in the Province. Andrew is also taking this opportunity to talk to over 12,000 students and is emphasizing the importance of learning to speak, read and write English, a required subject on the Thai school curriculum.

Si Sa Ket Province is located in the Northeastern part of Thailand between the Cambodia and Laos border about 400 miles from the capital of Bangkok. It is a rural rice-producing area with small villages and no major towns. The average family income is less than $1,000 per annum.

Said Andrew Titley “When I founded ThaiBookDrive last Summer, I hoped to collect a few thousand Elementary School textbooks and support the efforts of one or two smaller village schools but, thanks to the generosity of the many hundred donors in New York, I have been able to accumulate, ship and hand deliver books to every one of the 64 Elementary Schools here in the Si Sa Ket Province. These books were badly needed and all the teachers and students were extremely pleased to receive them. It has also been rewarding to be able to talk to, motivate and answer questions from the students – most of whom have never seen or met a foreigner.”

Andrew further stated “Despite the hardships of living alone for two months in an inhospitable location where very few people speak English, the extreme heat, humidity and an abundance of mosquitoes, this has been the most rewarding experience of my life. The Thai’s are a kind, wonderful, happy and generous people and it has been a pleasure to meet, talk and hopefully, in some way influence the lives of these schoolchildren. If, as a result of these books, some of these students are able to better their education, it will have been a worthwhile effort.”

Andrew has maintained a daily record of his activities on his website at www.ThaiBookDrive.com and hopes to return in future years with more books, computers and other school supplies. He returned to the USA at the end of August 2005 where he will continue his book drive. He is accepting donations of items such as books, computers, school supplies, and monetary support.

Richard J. Bolte, Jr., President, of BDP International (www.bdpint.com), Joe Yau, President of CDS Worldwide (www.cds-worldwide.com) and Lim Kok Wee, Managing Director of Triways Logistics (Thailand) (www.Triways.com) generously contributed towards the cost of shipping these books.

For further contact:
Andrew Titley, Founder, Thai Book Drive
Tel: 1-(516)-528-0009
Email: Info@ThaiBookDrive.com

For more information, please contact: Andrew Titley
Phone Number : 516-528-0009