hello fellow travelers . I have collected some reading books for grades k-3 that I want to donate to a school in the Negril area . the questions I have are to whom can I send them to , and how to ship them UPS , Fedex etc. ? we will also be taking an extra bag with pencils , paper and other supplies when we go on our next reach in feb 2014 . I have seen posts on here before about a priest in the Negril area can he help me ?? my mother taught school for a number of years some were hers and others came from our locale library that were taken out of circulation .

Gail at Treehouse is a great person to deal with on this kind of stuff.

Skirt, I've been up against the same problem before. When both of my schools (I'm a school psych) cleared-out their closets when they adopted brand-new textbooks, I had a humongous stash of really quite current & excellent Houghton-Mifflin textbooks that I wanted to get down to Jamaica. I explored every single possibility, including trying to ship them directly to Gail (Treehouse). It was a real downer, bc shipping to Jamaica is prohibitively expensive & bureaucratic! They could be shipped to the port at Montego Bay, but the biggest problem by far is the "duty fee" that the Jamaican Government will charge for the books to enter the country. I finally had to give up getting them there. If it's only a few books, I'd carry them down myself. However, I've taken to taking the money I'd normally spend (along with some generous donations from nice folks where I live) & buying the books & school supplies directly there in Negril at the Tallrich (school & stationary supply store), behind ValuMaster. Another good thing about doing it this way is that you also inject some much-needed money into the local economy there. Or, you could just buy the books there, and take the school supplies from a place like Target down yourself.

If you're just hell-bent on somehow getting them down there, the closest I came was to use a shipping company that Heng Fa (he sometimes posts here) recommends, out of New York. The problem with me using that is that I live nowhere near the East Coast! If you do live there, I think you might stand a chance.

Another person who is very instrumental in getting the books & school supplies to schools that really need them out in the rural areas (the Negril All-Age School already gets a TON of donations, due to its location) is Debbie Lightheart, who is the owner of Moonlight Villa up on the cliffs/West End. As a matter of fact, a school teacher, who teaches in a small school on the way north to Lucea, lives right across the street from her - Byron's wife - Byron owns the No Limit Bar there. Good luck!

how many books? Where do you live? If you reside in a place where there are lots of Caribbean ppl, you shouldnt have a problem.. I would help you to locate a shipper . UPS , FEDEX and shippers like those are cost prohibitive .. Gail at Treehouse and is very experienced in shipping and clearing items in Jamaica..

looking at the current pile , it is at about 50lbs . I am thinking of bringing an extra bag or two on the trip down , and begging the airline to wave the bag fees . we will likely fly airtran out of BWI and I am going to contact them before our trip to ask to have the fees waved . not sure if this will happen but it does not cost anything to ask . books are mostly reading material , plus a couple of teaching guides that mom used . will pickup the other supplies from local stores during the back to school sales next month . this has been on my mind since our last trip this past feb .

Bless you skirtchaser! And yes PLEASE bring them yourself as others have said for many reasons.