Press Releases

U.S. Embassy gives Kingston College library a boost

The Office of Public Affairs at the U.S. Embassy provided a well needed boost to the library at the Kingston College’s Melbourne Campus with the donation of several books to replace some books in its collection. 
The books included some 80 titles from the Scholastic Books series, dictionaries, text books and well known boys stories including The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”. Other titles in the collection included: The American Heritage Dictionary, “The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Edgar Allan Poe: Storyteller”

The Kingston College family was grateful for the donation from the U.S. Embassy as their collection suffered extensive damage during the passing of Hurricane Dean in August 2007 when hundreds of books were damaged or destroyed.
Library Technician at Kingston College Ms. Cassilda Hall said following the passing of the devastating storm, efforts to salvage books proved fruitless. “Books just disintegrated in your hands,” she said.

In making the presentation, Acting Public Affairs Officer at the U.S. Embassy Dr. Anthony Fisher, who is Jamaican by birth, told the students present that reading was the foundation of his success. “I grew up in a small village in Northern Trelawny, where going barefoot to school was the norm. I however had the great fortune to receive at a young age, a used set of Encyclopedia Americana, which changed my life,” he said. “We had no television or Internet then, and with ample time on my hands, I read. I am sure this early interest in reading, a practice that sustains me to this day, was the guiding force which took me through to my post graduate studies.”

Dr. Fisher also noted; “We are living in an age when educational qualifications are important for any profession, and reading is the key to progress. So I encourage you to read and to get seriously involved in your academics. Many graduates of KC who are now successful adults, I am sure attribute their success in life to their educational achievements.”

Since the start of the year, the Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy has donated books, computers and basketballs to several institutions across the Corporate Area including the Excelsior Community College, St Aloysius Primary School, and the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA).