MAKING AN IMPACT
Changing lives and improving our community one youth at a time...
Robotics: Train the Trainer Program
In January 2026, Project Promise introduced its latest initiative, the WRO: Train the Trainer Program. This program is designed to equip teachers and students with the essential resources and training required to implement the program within their respective schools, as well as prepare participants for mini competitions. The primary objectives are to provide comprehensive training for educators, engage elementary school students, and supply each participating elementary school with a Robotics Kit and Game Table. Participating institutions included Pearl B. Larsen, Juanita Gardine, Lew Muckle, Ricardo Richards, and Eulalie Rivera Elementary Schools.
Summer of Service 2
Project Promise’s Caterpillar students rode the rails across America during the summer of 2025 to make an impact on communities outside of the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The Caterpillars touched down in Washington, DC with stops in Illinois, Washington, British Columbia, and California.
Eight years ago Resa O’Reilly Shearn, Executive Director and Founder of St. Croix non-profit Project Promise, was watching TV when images of an orphanage in a remote village in Tanzania caught her attention. She immediately knew that she wanted to support this orphanage as part of Project Promise’s international outreach efforts. As a result, the annual “Toys for Tanzania” initiative was born.
We Dit It!
Nine years ago Project Promise President and Founder Resa O’Reilly saw a dilapidated building in downtown Christiansted—a building that had sat empty for 30 years—and had a vision. “One day,” she thought to herself, “this building is going to be a thriving community center and the home for an organization that will truly make a difference in the lives of at-risk youth here in the Virgin Islands.” With this vision in mind Resa launched Project Promise, operating out of borrowed space as she built an organization that now runs three on-going programs for area youth and completes numerous community service projects each year.
When St. Croix non-profit Project Promise launched its flagship Caterpillar Project to provide a full range of programming for a group of at-risk youth, it made community service an integral part of the program. The COVID-19 pandemic has not stopped this. In fact, it is the focus of their current efforts! With the goal of creating and implementing a community service project that can potentially impact the entire St. Croix community, the “Caterpillars” have completed Heart to Heart International’s COVID-19 Youth Ambassador program.
Summer of Service
Project Promise’s Caterpillar students drove across America this summer to make an impact on communities outside of the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The Caterpillars touched down in New York with stops in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and California
Project Promise announced their gifting of close to $10,000 to educate 30 children in South Africa for an entire year.
During this trip, O’Reilly decided to sponsor two children but upon return to St. Croix, she raised the funds to sponsor all the children.
