Ann-Wallis White is an independent charter broker who owns an eponymous booking agency in Annapolis, Maryland. Karen Kelly runs the Newport, Rhode Island, office of Nicholson Yachts. They both regularly book charter vacations for wealthy clients who want to cruise in the Caribbean–which has many pockets of poverty, including villages where children can’t get access to books.
As a way of giving back to the area, Ann has been (in her own word) smuggling books to these schoolchildren for the better part of three decades, often by finding charter yachts heading to the Caribbean that are willing to keep a stash onboard. Karen, who manages many charter yachts, has long helped Ann find willing co-conspirators in the endeavor.
Charter yachts are not the most efficient form of transport, but the method does prevent the books from being purloined before they reach the schools. Sending used books instead of new ones also helps ensure the kids will actually get them, and that no taxes will need to be paid by the recipients.
With help from the organization BIG Books, Ann has managed to get countless books onto Antigua over the years (they use proper channels instead of smuggling, as it were). Look at how happy the kids were to receive the latest shipment, hand delivered by Ann and Karen just last month:
The idea is to give back to the islands where so much money is spent on charter yacht vacations, but where, sadly, much of that money fails to trickle down to support the local children’s needs. As the charter industry is spreading southward across the Caribbean, Ann is working on organizing shipments of books to islands in the Grenadines, as well.
“We are always trying to raise money to send books to another Caribbean destination,” Ann told me. “It costs about $3,500. If people want to donate for shipping fees, they can make out the check to Big Books but send it to me, so it can be allocated for the Caribbean.”
People who charter yachts can also help in the project on a smaller scale, Ann says. “I always ask my clients to bring a few little Golden books, crayons, that sort of thing with them on their vacation, and when the children come begging, to give them the books and take an interest in them instead of just capitulating to the begging and giving them money. One prominent newscaster brought bags and bags of books when I asked him. It was very touching.”
I’m obviously impressed by this effort, which is why I’m sharing its details with you here. When a multimillion-dollar yacht pulls into an island where children are having a hard time getting books, and leaves them empty-handed, there is simply much more that needs to be done. Kudos to charter brokers like Ann-Wallis White and Karen Kelly for doing it.
If you’d like to contribute to the effort, you can reach Ann at awwyc@comcast.net. Her phone number is (410) 263-6366.
