Project Promise on the Road For Summer of Service

M.A. Dworkin

St. Croix - Resa O’Reilly Shearn’s groundbreaking Project Promise and its Caterpillar Project students are taking a road trip across America this summer with their first stop touching down in Washington, D.C. on June 26, 2025 with designs on making an impact on communities outside the U.S. Virgin Islands. 

After the ‘Caterpillars’ touch down in D.C. the group will volunteer at the United Way of the National Capital Area by creating Healthy Snack Kits for local area youth. 

The group will then start their trek westward, with stops in Illinois, Washington State, British Columbia, and back down the coast to California. Along the way they will undertake various service projects that include helping to serve meals, creating encouragement cards, and creating a community garden.

Community service is one of the nine components at the core of the Project Promise program. Over the last ten years, the Caterpillar Project students have completed monthly community service projects locally, nationally, and even internationally. 

“Community service is an instrumental part of who we are as an organization,” Ms. O’Reilly Shearn told the St. Croix Times. “The activities are designed to expand the students’ outlook and help them think of themselves as citizens of the world.”

This opportunity of a lifetime is the second such undertaking for Project Promise. In 2019, the Caterpillar Project embarked on their first Summer of Service, as they worked alongside individuals and organizations they had formed connections with over the years, as well as, connecting with new organizations to complete service projects in New York, Ohio, Illinois, Tennessee, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Nevada.

Project Promise’s Summer of Service is sponsored by One Communications, Attorney Joel Holt, Tropico Management, Judge Steele, Frederiksted Twin City Lions Club, Cruzan Creations and several other businesses and individuals. 

The coast-to-coast rail trip wraps up in California. The Caterpillars will then ride the rails back to Washington, D.C. and fly back home to St. Croix on July 9, 2025.

Project Promise is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of at-risk youth on St. Croix by providing empowerment initiatives, cultural programs, and family services. For more information about Project Promise please contact Resa O’Reilly Shearn at 340-513-0446 or visit their website at www.projectpromisevi.com.