Wilmington , N.C. , Rotary Club , U.S. Navy

Collaborate on Project to Provide

Library and Archival Materials for

Convent on Tarawa, Republic of Kiribati

In a rare opportunity for joint civic involvement with the U.S. military, the Wilmington, N. C., Downtown Rotary club recently collaborated with the Navy to provide library and archives items to the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart convent on Tarawa, Republic of Kiribati.

The club collected and shipped the items in May to the Navy’s Project Handclasp in San Diego , Calif. , where they were included for sealift on two Navy ships for direct delivery under the Pacific Partnership 2009 humanitarian program. The convent received them in September from the USNS Richard E. Byrd.

Kiribati is an atoll-island, Third World nation straddling the International Dateline and Equator in the Central Pacific.

Navy public affairs officer Lt. Comdr. Nancy Harrity, who accompanied and helped facilitate the project, announced the delivery from Tarawa .

" Mission accomplished! Many, many thanks to you and all involved in this project,” wrote Sister Margaret Sullivan, convent archivist, to the club. “A dream has come true with the arrival of these archival materials. We unpacked the boxes - what a lot of surprises awaited us. Now we are looking for more space and bookcases.”

The 23-box shipment included new and used World War II non-fiction books and numerous related DVDs/VHS videotapes, and magazines. The Wilmington public and Marine Corps sources donated many of the items. It also included a supply of archival materials (storage boxes, binders, protective sheets, etc.), and a new laptop computer and software which the convent requested.

The historical items will supplement the orderly, but limited, convent library/archives which serves the Tarawa community and Kiribati .

The project resulted from a WWII battlefield tour to Tarawa led by Rotarian Wilbur Jones in November 2008 for the 65th anniversary of the Battle of Tarawa . In November 1943, the Second Marine Division assaulted the Japanese forces on the atoll in a bloody battle. Along with the Army's simultaneous landing on Makin atoll, also in Kiribati , the Marines liberated what were then called the Gilbert Islands .

Jones, a retired Navy captain, author and military historian, spent one week there. “We visited the convent and were impressed with how little information they had on the Pacific War, WWII in general, and their liberation,” Jones said. “The sisters were enthused about the potential project.” He maintained frequent email contact with Sister Margaret as the project developed.

Jones and Downtown club president Melissa Hight coordinated the club's drive to collect and ship the items. He contacted the U.S. ambassador, Steve McGann, in Fiji , whom he had met on Tarawa . McGann referred him to his military attache, Army Maj. William Boswell, who connected the club with Project Handclasp. Boswell knew Pacific Partnership 2009 would travel to Tarawa, and suggested the Rotary Club ship the boxes to San Diego for inclusion in the Navy's humanitarian mission.

The club rushed to complete the collection so its shipment would arrive in San Diego by early June, in time for the Navy's planned departure. Jones said the biggest concern had been finding an inexpensive and secure way to ship the boxes to Kiribati because of the expense and the time it takes packages to reach there.

Funding for items and shipping came from a small Rotary Foundation grant and member contributions.

Jones will lead a week-long return battlefield tour to Tarawa in mid-November and will survey the project’s impact on the convent’s service to the people.

Lt. Comdr. Harrity noted that Project Handclasp, by which the Navy vessels transport goods donated by Americans to the nations the Navy visits, ensured safe delivery to Kiribati, with no cost or customs paperwork for the Rotary Club or the convent.

According to Cheyenne Ferrell, Project Handclasp's coordinator, the Rotary donation was highly unusual because it was designated for a specific recipient. Usually, items are donated without designation.

Pacific Partnership works by, with and through partner nations, non-governmental organizations and other U.S. government and international agencies to execute a variety of humanitarian civic assistance ( HCA ) missions in the Pacific Fleet Area of Responsibility from a ship dedicated to this HCA mission.

This year's mission was focused ashore with a variety of engineering, medical and dental, and civic action programs providing humanitarian assistance, Harrity said. The mission also included stops in the Republic of the Marshall Islands , Samoa , Tonga , and the Solomon Islands .