BATS goes to Dingalan, Aurora

THE Club has been going places lately. Last September 8, the Books Across the Seas (BATS) Project continued its 2018-2019 run in Dingalan, Aurora where it donated books—530 titles—to the Matawe Elementary School. The donation was a joint activity of the Club and the Pangkat ng Kartunistang Mangaakyat (PangKaMa), an organization of mountaineers with a social service bent to which our CoS Ron Dotaro belongs. Ron, representing both the Club and Pangkama, handed over the books to Mr. Fortune Valdez, school principal. They also distributed school supplies and food packs to the school’s 300+ students. In July, the project distributed books to 12 schools and organizations, including four Rotary Clubs. More activities are planned in the months ahead, with the expected receipt of two container van-loads of books in November from the Pittsburgh-based Brother’s Brother Foundation (BBF), our main source of books. At the instance of PDG Sid Garcia, we will soon be conducting a book fair for schools in Bulacan in partnership with District 3770 under DG Celso Cruz. The BATS Committee is chaired by Jolyon Tiglao, with Jay Savage acting as adviser. It belongs to the directorate of Community Service A under PE/Dir. Bimbo Mills. Started in 1988 during the incumbency of then President Gigi Zulueta, BATS is one of the Club’s longest-running projects and has distributed over 15M books to over 65,000 schools nationwide. It has a long-standing partnership with BBF, which has been supplying the books we give away since the project’s inception 30 years ago, and PNB (formerly Allied Bank), which has made available to us a huge warehouse in Novaliches where the books are stored and sorted out prior to release.