Lynnfield Brothers Visit Library in Philippines Named in Their Honor

Editor's Note: Thanks to Marie Lagman of local nonprofit group BKP, which provides donated books to libraries in the Philippines, for providing the article below. BKP stands for "Bagong Kulturang Pinoy," which is Tagalog for "New Filipino Culture."

Back in January 2012, Lynnfield Patch interviewed Lagman about BKP and its work. Volunteers meet twice a month in the basement of the Centre Congregational Church to pack up the books they gather for shipment overseas. Click here to read that interview.

Each Halloween, BKP holds an annual Halloween dance. Learn more about their 2012 event, held at the Wakefield Elks Club, at this link.

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Lynnfield brothers Ryan and Kyle Prouty, spent their February vacation visiting the library that is named in their honor at the San Rafael Elementary School (SRES) in Guagua, Pampanga, Philippines. 

Two years ago, Ryan, now a junior at Lynnfield High School, and Kyle, a freshman at LHS, sponsored a library through their volunteer work at Bagong Kulturang Pinoy (“New Filipino Culture”).  BKP is a non-profit whose ultimate mission is to use literacy and education to empower impoverished children in the Philippines to improve their situations in life and broaden their opportunities.  To date, BKP has established more than 150 mini-libraries throughout the Philippines.  The Prouty brothers, who have been volunteering at BKP for six years, have committed themselves whole-heartedly to this cause.  They organize book drives; pick up book donations from libraries, schools, and individuals; stamp books; and pack up large shipping boxes to get them ready for shipment.

Their BKP work, however, is only the beginning of the Prouty brothers’ philanthropic endeavors in the Philippines.  SRES serves some of the most impoverished children in their school district.  Many of the students don’t have even the most basic school supplies to do their work and an alarmingly large percentage of the students are malnourished.  The Prouty brothers and their family do what they can to address both these needs.  They periodically collect school supplies to send the school.  Kyle even donated his own laptop computer.  Their family also donates towards a feeding program at the school that provides lunch to the neediest of the students.

Thrilled when they heard that their library benefactors were finally coming for a visit, the students and staff at SRES decided to make the event a school-wide celebration.  The Prouty brothers, their mother, grandparents, and an aunt were greeted at the school gates by the principal and teachers, ushered into front-row seats facing a stage, and treated to dance performances by students from each grade level and speeches by the principal, teachers, and their PTO president.  To add to the celebratory feel, the Prouty brothers and their family presented gifts for the school and for the individual teachers, and provided a spaghetti lunch for all the students.  Picking books from the library bearing their names, Ryan read aloud to a class of second-graders and Kyle read aloud to a class of first-graders.

Michael Datu, their teacher contact at SRES, summed up his school’s appreciation by saying, “[Their] continuous support of our school is one of the best gifts and blessings that we’ve ever received and we are very much grateful for that.  The books that we received from BKP are a great help for our school children in improving their ability to read and to comprehend.  They love to go to the library everyday.”  Sharon Morales, a former SRES teacher who recently transferred to another elementary school in the same district, has witnessed the positive impact the Ryan and Kyle Prouty Library has had on the students’ quality of education.  As a matter of fact, the Prouty brothers and their family are sponsoring another library at Morales’s new school.  She exclaimed, “I thank God for giving me the chance to meet wonderful people like [them].”

BKP is a registered 501[c](3) non-profit whose base of operations is at the Centre Congregational Church in Lynnfield.  It is in need of gently used children’s books, volunteers, and monetary donations to cover shipping costs.  For more information, please contact Judi Babcock at 781-275-1183 or visit www.bkpinc.org.