Old desks from Penn Manor High School will soon be headed to schools in Central America.
Penn Manor has partnered with Central American Relief Efforts (CARE) to donate more than 1,000 desks from the high school to the Lancaster-based nonprofit group, which builds schools in impoverished areas of Honduras.
The desks, scheduled for replacement as part of the high school construction project, have little or no value on the resale market, and the district would have to pay someone to remove and store them. By donating them to CARE, Penn Manor is assuring they will be put to good use in one of the poorest regions of one of Central America’s poorest countries.
The desks were being loaded into shipping containers at the high school the week of June 8 and are expected to head to Honduras within the next three to four weeks.
This marks the fifth time Penn Manor has donated desks, chairs and other furniture to CARE for schools in Central America.
The partnership began nine years ago when used furniture from Central Manor Elementary School was donated to a school in La Laguna de San Antonio de Padua, Honduras.
In 2015, Penn Manor donated old desks, chairs and cabinets from Pequea Elementary and the old Hambright Elementary for schools in Javier Soriano.
The following year, old desks, chairs, cabinets, chalkboards and other fixtures from Conestoga Elementary School were donated to CARE.
“Penn Manor has been a consistent generous donor,” said Andrew Appel, executive director of CARE. “And this is by far the largest donation we’ve received. There are going to be a lot of happy kids in Honduras.”
Many thanks to all those who made this donation possible.