Old scholars donate to Alma Mater

Five barrels worth US$1 000 each were donated to the Christ Church Foundation School (CCFS) yesterday by some of the old scholars who form a part of the CCFS’s Lighthouse Knights and Lights.

Representative, Winston Smith told the media yesterday that there was then the additional costs of US$100.00 shipping each barrel and then the fees to get them out of the Bridgetown Port, resulting in approximately US$7 000 to US$8 000 in total.
He said that the initiative came about after they realised that there are children at their alma mater whose parents cannot afford to get them things like school supplies and breakfast.

“This thing was spearheaded by Michael Clarke and Roberta Phillips. We realised that there are some kids that have challenges at school as far as school supplies; some kids come to school hungry. So Michael Clarke decided he was going to reach out to everyone who lives in New York or who lives overseas basically, collect some funds and try to ship some barrels of school supplies and food stuff home to help out the school, to help out the principal, to help out the guidance counsellor. So that is what he did. He was able to raise enough money to ship five barrels here.”

Some of the items that were donated include school supplies – books, pens, pencils, crayons and food items that the school can use for breakfast for those children who may come to school without having this meal. With regards to this, he would like to see the school adopt an initiative where they can use the food items donated – along with any food items donated in the future – to spearhead a programme where they provide breakfast on mornings to those children who come to school hungry because their parents cannot afford it.

“I think that there should be some mechanism in place where the school can make breakfast for the kids because it started when we heard about a kid that was coming to school very hungry and we understood that, because like I said, some of us were in that position when we lived in Barbados.”

Smith said that the initiative was also birthed because some of their members would have gone through the same thing in their youth and they would now like to give back to these children.

“There is a whole group of us who get together and our goal is to try and not leave any kids behind basically; try to help out all the kids, try to help out the school in any way that we can and it is something that we would like other schools to get involved with like old scholars who are overseas. They can get together and try to reach back and help out the schools here too because it is a challenge for some schools, some kids... We were not born rich and we are not rich by any means, but it is always good to give back to your school.”

 In addition to this donation, they also help out Barbadian children who are studying overseas in the US wherever and whenever they can, he added.