MANILA, Philippines - The Rotary Club of Boracay recently re-launched Boracay’s Mobile Library, to mark the project’s fourth year of operations. Several books were turned over to Tobey Mockel, a Canadian Baptist missionary, who with his wife Anita Antolin, started the mobile library to provide books and encourage reading to children residing in the less fortunate communities in Boracay Island, Aklan.
The ceremonial donation was facilitated by the Rotary Club of Boracay’s past president Dr. Girlie Teotico, supported by Boracay Island Water Co. led by its chief operations officer, Rotarian Ben Mañosca. Also in attendance were members of the Rotary Club of Boracay, and representatives from the Philippine National Police-BTAC, Red Cross Boracay Chapter, and EastWest Bank Boracay branch.
READ Philippines, an organization, dedicated to distributing books in the Philippines, also donated books for the re-launch.
The Boracay mobile library started in 2009 during the birthday of Tobey Mockel, owner of Sunset Villas Resort, Boracay. Mockel invited his friends and business associates to celebrate his birthday in Boracay and ask them to donate some money to realize his plans for the mobile library. Mockel’s friends from all over the world donated books for the said cause.
The Rotary Club of Boracay meanwhile gathered enough money to buy a second hand multicab which was eventually converted and modified as the rotary mobile library which is being used today. The library has been running ever since and servicing different communities in the northern part of Boracay, Barangay Yapak.
The Rotary Club of Boracay together with Boracay Water, the water and used water operator in Boracay Island, are working to get more books for the mobile library for the children of Boracay.