In September 2008, Cynthia Cavalenes-Jarvis, a member of the Kytherian Society of California, visited Kythera for the first time. After meeting Australian Kytherian, George Poulos on his visit to Southern California in the summer of 2007, Cynthia had the opportunity to re-connect with him on this visit. George graciously introduced Cynthia to Kythera’s Mayor, Theodore Koukoulis. During their conversation, the mayor mentioned that there is a need on the island for bookshelves to help furnish the island’s first “public lending” library.

Cynthia works for the city of Alhambra in California, which has just recently opened a new library and concurrently has vacated its former library site. In doing so, only the books were moved to the new library, leaving all of the furniture and the bookshelves behind at the former site. With this in mind Cynthia approached the city of Alhambra administration and arranged to recycle the no longer needed shelves for Kythera. Concurrently, Cynthia also contacted Mayor Koukoulis’ office at the municipality on Kythera to be certain that they could use and would like to have the bookshelves for the island. Cynthia was contacted by John Stathatos, director of the Kytherian Cultural Association and KIPA - The Kytherian Foundation for Culture & Development (Mayor Koukoulis’s designee for the project) who responded with an enthusiastic “yes!”

Click here to see letters from Kythera

Cynthia is also a member of the Soroptimist International of Alhambra, San Gabriel, San Marino. This philanthropic organization has been instrumental in supporting and facilitating the project since its inception and began accepting donations for the project in October 2008. Upon hearing of the effort, the Kytherian Society of California and the Kytherian Association of Australia joined the effort and also established special tax deductible accounts to accept donations for the Kythera Bookshelves Project.

The budget is finalized and donations are being secured to make this project come to fruition. Hopefully you will recognize how invaluable this project is to the island and how much it will improve island life. Please open your hearts and your treasury to assist with funding the transport of the shelves. Cost for truck transport from Alhambra to the Port of Long Beach, shipping to Athens, Customs and Port charges in Athens and final transport from Athens to Kythera are anticipated to be approximately $10,750. Although this may seem high at first glance, it is important to note that the cost of purchasing commercial bookshelves of this quality on the open market would exceed these special discounted “charity goods” shipping charges alone. Additionally, shipping charges and duty charges for new shelves would be exorbitantly high, making the bookshelves unobtainable.

To date sizable donations have been secured from organizations including the Kytherian Society of California, the Kytherian Association of New York, AHEPA Chapter #349, Staten Island, New York, Rotary Club of Alhambra, CA, the Jarvis Family, the city of Alhambra, individual members of the Soroptimist International of Alhambra, San Gabriel, and San Marino, CA, and numerous private individuals but we still have a long way to go.

As a potential donor, we urge you to give this project serious consideration.
No donation is too large or too small,
All donations are 100% tax deductible & gratefully accepted.

Donations may be made payable to:

Kytherian Society of California
1478 Calais
Livermore, CA 94550
USA

For those in Australia checks may be made payable to:

Kytherian World Heritage Fund
and mailed to:

Treasurer
Kytherian Association of Australia
P.O. Box A203
Sydney South, NSW 1235
Australia

For additional information, please contact:
Cynthia Cavalenes- Jarvis, Bookshelves Project Manager
via email Cynthia Cavalenes or by cell phone at 626-625-8301

She will be very happy to answer any questions you may have and is eager to hear any suggestions or comments as well.

Visit the Kytherian Society of California Website where you can donate via Paypal and see more photos of the project.
Kytherian Society of California – Kythera Bookshelves Project