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On April 26, the 2007-2008 VIS Student Council hosted the first ever Student Council Gala Ball at the Lao Plaza Hotel to raise money for a local publishing house, Big Brother Mouse. With over 200 guests in their best suits and dresses, the evening was a runaway success, with the guest speaker from Big Brother Mouse keeping the audience enthralled as he spoke about the work that he and his colleagues undertake, promoting literacy in the remote villages of Lao. He spoke of walking for hours to remote villages to host "Book Parties" where village children have often their first experience with a book. At the end of the fun and games, reading activities and party atmosphere the children are left with a book of their own and a book exchange system left with the village school. The Student Council, with the support of many generous sponsors and gala guests, raised more than twenty million kip to support Big Brother Mouse in their efforts across the country.  The letter below and photos were received from Mr Khamla after she and her colleagues travelled out into the villages and hosted book parties with some of the funds donated by the VIS Student Council.
Dear all VIS's Teachers and Secondary Student Council,
We held a book party, and set up a book swap (what we call a mini-library), using the donation you made to Big Brother Mouse in April 26. I will remember the first speaking myself with you all forever at Lao Plaza Hotel. 
Date of event: Thursday, 15 May 2008
Village: Ban Kiet, in Pak Ou district, about two hours to the north from Luang Prabang. And now we won't have many parties as usually because of the school close for holiday a period of three months until September. However when the school start new term, we are sure that we will do some book party in Vientiane that you can go and share the events.
Here are a few pictures from that day. And as I speak to you and on our website, there's a fuller description of what we do at each event.
At the end of the party all the kids got a free book of their own, nearly always the first book they've ever owned. Then we left more books with the school, so they can trade their book for a different one after they've read it. We left a total of 283 books.
It was an exciting day for all of the children, and we expect many of them will always remember it -- both because they had fun, and for the magic of opening a fun book for the first time, and discovering the new world that opens up. Thank you for making this possible!
If you have a website, or send out a newsletter to friends and family, we hope you'll use one of these pictures to show what you've done, and to encourage others to do the same. 
With best wishes,
Khamla
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Student Life 
