SIMPSON BAY--Author and former Minister of Education Rhoda Arrindell was the guest speaker at Rotary Club of St. Maarten-Mid Isle on Tuesday. Arrindell spoke to Mid Isle about her new project Source of Inspirational Learning (SOIL).
SOIL will operate a bookstore and restaurant/snack bar that will cater to the educational, recreational, entertainment, development and empowerment needs of its patrons. She believes that to influence or make positive changes in society, the public must be engaged in its developments.
SOIL envisions a space where young people and adults will be able to interact among themselves and with each other to grow and contribute to their community in more positive ways. It will provide products and services through a restaurant/snack bar, bookstore, a zone youth café, game room and development centre and meeting space.
SOIL’s vision is “to engage, promote and develop the youth of the island and the nation’s dynamic culture and heritage, and to serve as a place where reading in public engages knowledge as an innovative and valuable source of inspiration and growth.”
The objective is to make SOIL the destination for book-lovers and positively active youth. Its mission will be to make SOIL a safe social outlet for young people to enjoy themselves, access information, receive academic support, be creative and become positively involved in their community.
SOIL will be a place where adults will find a hospitable environment that encourages reading, writing and a healthy exchange of ideas. Their values will be guided by a clean, safe and healthy environment, healthy exchange of ideas, lifelong readership and community involvement.
Rotary Club of St. Maarten-Mid Isle was pleased to learn of this new venture which promotes literacy among adults and youth in the community as Rotary Literacy Month was in September.
