Changing the world one book at a time

Photos by Julie Nabours and contributed by Christopher McGilvery

Christopher McGilvery, founder and executive director of Temple-based Give More HUGS (Helping Unite Giving Souls), helps underserved school children in five countries obtain the books and school supplies they need.

Since its inception in 2014 on the Caribbean island of Dominica, McGilvery has trained 86 student ambassadors and has touched the lives of 26,000 students in the United States, Japan, Grenada, Canada and Dominica. He does this through annual book and backpack drives held in each country.

“We’ve made a large impact with very little funding,” said McGilvery, citing funds raised through crowd sourcing campaigns, fundraisers, corporate and family foundation sponsors, a global volunteer board of directors, student ambassadors and an army of volunteers.“Every dollar we make goes back into the community we serve,” he said, adding that no one on staff gets a salary, including himself.

A passion for teaching

McGilvery is a career educator with three degrees from Angelo State University in San Angelo: a BA in communications; an M.Ed in student development and leadership in higher education and an MA in curriculum and instruction. He met his wife, Taryn, in San Angelo. She is a resident doctor at Scott & White Medical Center in Temple.

It was Taryn’s decision to pursue a second degree in medicine that led to them to Dominica and the founding of Give More HUGS (www.givemorehugs.org).

With her husband’s support, Taryn returned to school to earn a second bachelor’s degree in biology with a pre-med requirement. While Taryn studied, McGilvery taught adult ESL (English as a second language), secondary methods courses and instructional technology at his alma mater.

Taryn applied to medical schools. When she was accepted at Ross University on the island of Dominica, they packed their bags and started an adventure.

Creating Ohana

The majority of Dominica’s population lives in poverty, but their ability for self-sustenance and Caribbean hospitality offers a simple life.

“You don’t have much. Many of the locals and families I got to know live a simple life. They grow their own fruits and vegetables and sell it at markets; they also fish and sell their catch at the market,” he said.

Many families live in one-room houses with no electricity or indoor plumbing. Running water is outside, where dishes are washed and left to dry in the sun. The bathroom is an outhouse. Some homes don’t have a front door, only a curtain keeps the outside world from coming in. But everything in Dominica is community. People don’t seem to mind when neighbors stop by for a visit.

“Living on that island changed us,” said McGilvery, who was familiar with island living from his childhood in Hawaii. “It changed our perspective, our view of the world around us and made us realize how simple life should be, and how we could support one another.”

Sharing knowledge

While living in Dominica, McGilvery worked as Ross University’s interim director of faculty development. He volunteered at middle schools, teaching arts and crafts, reading, and playing soccer with the kids.

“I wanted to be involved with the local school system. My background is in education. My career always focused on education. I taught middle school and adult ESL to people of all nationalities: Chinese, Burmese, and Spanish. It opens your eyes to want to connect. When you are a teacher you want your students to reach their potential, inspire them to learn.”

McGilvery understands poverty. He was born in Texas to parents who were from the Philippines and the United States. He remembers his mother’s stories about growing up in Iloilo City, the Philippines, where she lived in a bamboo house with a dirt floor and no running water. She was 11 years old when she was forced to quit school to work on the family farm. She made it her mission to motivate her children to do well in school.

Dominica was a reminder of his mother’s life growing up in a bamboo house with no resources, he said. When McGilvery returned to the Unites States, he wanted to do something for the people who became “ohana,” family to him and Taryn, and the seed for Give More HUGS was planted.

He decided to establish a nonprofit that would help the children, but he knew he couldn’t do it himself.

He recruited friends, partnered with schools in Dominica, and rallied the local Rotary Club and other nonprofit organizations to continue providing educational resources, books and inspiration to communities.

To ensure his work would continue after he left the island, he mentored middle school and college students, developing their leadership skills so they could support the underserved areas of their community.

“I knew I couldn’t do it myself. I needed people to help support education locally and globally. Kids out there are crying silently for support. We can come together to help children realize their potential to pursue their dreams and be passionate about their chosen career.”

His first fundraiser was a garage sale where he and Taryn sold their household goods before leaving the island. Before the McGilverys left for the United States, they raised $1,000 that enabled them to register in the state of Texas as a 501(c) 3 organization. “That was in 2013,” he said. “From there, we just expanded, and we continue to expand.”

Local impact

McGilvery knows he cannot be in every city or country that hosts the book and backpack drives. But his trained ambassadors are there to carry out his vision.

Ambassadors host drives in several Texas cities, including Temple, Killeen, San Antonio, Lubbock and the Dallas area.

In January a group of student volunteers and ambassadors for Give More HUGS in Temple (many from the Un-Included Club) created bins for their annual book drive, one of many occurring simultaneously in Central Texas. The bins were placed at area businesses for the collection of new or gently used children’s books for distribution to underserved schoolchildren in the community.

“Give More HUGS expands opportunities for our leadership program that we have with our middle and high school students,” said Doree Collins, executive director of the Un-Included Club. “The ambassadors with Give More HUGS partners with the Un-Included Club for children to serve by creating collection bins for book drives, sign books and then give them to underserved children.”

The book drive is just one of the initiatives that help local schoolchildren. The annual Backpack Drive provides students with new backpacks loaded with school supplies and other necessities, like those McGilvery and his volunteers handed out to children at two Houston schools devastated by Hurricane Harvey.

Paying it forward

Josie Figueroa, an eighth-grader at Charles Patterson Middle School in Killeen has been a HUGS ambassador for about a year. “It has enriched my life by giving me the opportunity of helping people outside of my community and giving leadership skills,” Figueroa said.

Shayna Fleming served as an ambassador with Give More HUGS for one year before starting a chapter at Angelo State University. “Working with Give More HUGS has given me the opportunity to actively make a change in my community,” said Fleming, president of the ASU chapter. “It has shown me that the need for educational resources has a real effect, and that it affects those in our own community. This experience has developed my leadership skills and provided me with a platform to use my voice.”

“Every kid has dreams and it’s up to everyone to help those kids achieve their dreams,” added McGilvery. “There is too much, ‘you can’t do it.’ Let’s connect them to books and people who serve as mentors to help them reach their dreams and potential.”

When McGilvery started Give More HUGS, he said he never imagined it would transform his own life.
“I want to continue this and keep it going because you see the impact it has made in a short period of time,” he said.