Young native Spanish-speaking students at Boulder Hill Elementary were in for a big “literary” surprise when the Mexican Consulate arrived with more than 20 boxes of donated books in Spanish.

"The books were given to the school as part of the textbook donation program, which has provided books to children and schools in the Chicagoland area for the past 18 years. One of the goals of the Mexican Consulate is to preserve the native language of Hispanic heritage students and their families, in particular those of Mexican descent.

To support their mission, the Consulate acts as a liaison between the Mexican government and U.S schools. Working together, the Consulate and Mexican government are able to provide free native language Spanish books to schools and school districts in the United States with notable Hispanic heritage populations. After completing an application with the Mexican Consulate, Community Unit School District 308 was awarded with 22 boxes of free books to be distributed to each dual language (DL) and developmental bilingual education (DBE) classroom across the district.

During his visit to Boulder Hill Elementary, Mexican Consul of Community Affairs Carlos Paulino Valera spent part of the morning with the children speaking about the importance of literacy before reading to them from one of the books. 

“I consider the profession of being a teacher wonderful, important and satisfying,” said Valera. “I was a teacher and this moment is very special to me.”

Boulder Hill teachers, staff and volunteers along with School District administrators, Board President Matt Bauman and Board of Education members Brad Banks and Lauri Doyle attended the smile-filled event."

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