School gets spruced up

The St. Lawrence Primary School is being spruced up, with extensive
paintwork being carried out on the plant.

Over the last few weeks, that work has been carried out by persons who
have been sentenced to community service by the traffic court. Under
the supervision of Eleanor Rice, Community Service Officer with the
Probation Department, the team has painted virtually every surface of
the exterior of the school and also freshened up the bathrooms.

Rice, speaking to The Barbados Advocate last week at the site, gave
the assurance that the school will be ready for the return of Class 4
students in a few weeks’ time, adamant that their goal is to not only
have the painting completed, but any fumes gone long before then. At
the time of the interview they had been on the job nine days and she
said with as many as ten persons working on the project at times, she
was tremendously pleased with the progress they had been able to make.

“It entailed more work than we thought, but we have the manpower with
our Community Service clients. As you can see we did a lot of painting
here especially on the outside of the school and the bathrooms, I am
sure that when the children come back to St. Lawrence Primary, they
are going to very happy with the look of their school,” she stated.

While this is the first time that they have been able to assist a
school, she explained that Community Service clients over the years
have been assisting mostly churches, and been reaping great rewards
from being able to give back. Rice said those rewards were not only in
terms of the reprimand and discharge they receive when they return to
court after they have successfully completed their service, but she
explained, there is a certain satisfaction they get from being
involved in the projects.

“We want to do more schools, but we have not had a lot of success with
it. But surely when the schools are closed in June, I am thinking that
we can take in some teams and do schools, because look at this, this
is eight days of work, today is our ninth day and by this evening more
work would have been done,” she stated.

Adding to her remarks, Principal, Andrea Cheltenham said she was
elated that the school had been considered for help, and even more so
by the amount of work that those involved were able to accomplish. Her
comments came as she explained that the paint costs were covered by
nearby restaurant Café Sol, Dr. Adrian Richards, and some of the
proceeds of Sky Mall Support Our Youth and Shape Our Future
Competition which the school received a few months ago.

“I thank Mrs. Rice for the work she had done and how she has motivated
the persons to really work on the project. I want to thank the
Probation Department and I have to also thank all the persons outside
of this who made this possible... lots of people have come together to
ensure we get this project done,” the principal indicated.

She added, “I know when the students return to school, they are going
to be extremely excited and happy to see the upgrade in the facilities. I am feeling
so good and I know the students are going to be excited when they
return to see a newly painted building and everything is bright and
clean. It is something to look forward to having been shut in because
of coronavirus. It will lift the spirits of the children.”

Meanwhile, Magistrate Graveney Bannister, who was responsible for
giving those who worked on the project community service, was equally
pleased with the outcome and said he had no doubt the students will be
impressed with what has been done. (JRT)