Public officials pledge thousands to ESHS from personal businesses
‘Tis the season of giving and local public officials were in a generous mood today as they pledged monies to the Recovery and Development Agency (RDA) for the construction of new buildings at Elmore Stoutt High School (ESHS).
Deputy Speaker of the House of Assembly Neville Smith kicked off the giving festivities by handing over a $15,000 cheque to the RDA’s Director of Programme Strategy Dr Neil Smith, the principal of ESHS Vanessa Garraway, and the Minster of Education Dr Natalio Wheatley.
“I am a product of this school and I’m a very proud product. I’m here today because of this school. I did not go to college, but I thanked all my teachers who have invested in me. So, today as a business person, I am going to invest in this school. I’m going to donate $15,000 from my company Caribbean Security to build a classroom,” Neville Smith said in handing over the cheque.
“I’m doing this because what I want to see happen is that every student that leaves this school … if they can contribute whether it is $1,000 or $100 to a building fund, they should. As people that leave this school, we need to give back. As business people, we need to give back. So today, I’m begging and asking all who have been to the school to contribute by creating a building fund. Let us do it,” the Deputy Speaker.
The baton was quickly handed off to the Minister of Social Development Carvin Malone and he said he and the ESHS class of ’76 are committed to matching the $15,000 donation made by the Deputy Speaker.
“There is a lot more to be said and there are other team members who will say it. I am sure I can commit the class of ’76 to match the $15,000 donations… We will do this together. We will raise the funds and we will continue to build the schools,” Malone said.
Meanwhile, Dr Neil Smith shared a story of the McMaster family. He said ESHS has helped to develop 25 of the 30 members of the family living in the BVI including Olympian Kyron McMaster. He said for this, his family are making a donation to the school.
“The McMaster family would like to give back. They are contributing $250 per person to the school. For a total of $7,500,” Dr Neil Smith said.
Representative of the Fourth District where the ESHS is located, Mark Vanterpool, also got in on the donation act. Vanterpool noted that his company has been giving scholarships to students to pursue education for years. For that reason, his board of directors have budgeted $100,000 annually for the next five years to contribute to education in the territory.
“We give students scholarships because we believe education is the foundation and businesses have to give back to education. Having said all that, yes, $25,000 from Vanterpool Group of Companies,” the Fourth District Representative said.
The outpour of donation commitments happened during the contract signing for the redevelopment of the Elmore Stoutt High School (ESHS).
The new buildings to be developed at the high school is expected to be completed for the upcoming 2022/2023 academic year.
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They’re clearly scamming enough from us to give some back.
Once again Ok Gussy you and your UK office pals assigned to blog bad blogs about the BVI and its leaders can stop now.
McMaster-$7500
Sheep-$15,000
Mark-$25,000
Malone Class of 76 IOU-Priceless
ROTFL!!! You caught that!!!! I would shake your hand. Wish I could like your post a thousand times!!!!!! Good laugh for the afternoon!??
Thanks for kicking back some of our tax payer money.
this is such a wonderful initiative that I am lost for words. I am an expatriate with belonger status and I will contribute with my children because this Elmore stoutt high school is where they get their education.
nice ,nice…., who say BVI broke?…. we ain’t broke at all. We filthy rich. Thank you guys for your donation.
Make hundred of thousand$ from no bid contracts and then showing off by giving back some…..The premier used to call that “reverse robin hood” when the NDP was in power
Very nice with his ill-gotten security contracts that provide very little kick some of that back to look nice but I have to wonder how this is even an issue when these fools are spending $400 million on a budget including security political consultant and the inevitable shower of grift and corrupt dollars to trickle down to their pals, what is 40 million or 10% of that or even 1% of that at 4 million be an overdue allotment to invest in what is a dangerously uneducated population ? Let’s see how much any of these jokers have been given to education over the last 10 years before it was highlighted that the schools are falling apart and in the last two years very incompetent people or VIP has failed in their charge to manage and improve.
Remember the district inflated fund. Maybe that’s where it’s coming from and NOT their Swiss account ? as for the RDAmanager his is from the peekaboo club who wanted the building projects passed!
This is a good move but as usual a few of you always only see the bad and post the malicious.
This would embarrass even a poor country. Government by the comically inept.
Ok Gussy you and your UK office pals assigned to blog bad blogs about the BVI and its leaders can stop now.
The so called corrupt people of the BVI donating their personal earnings to help educate the future generations of this territory while the good guys spew negativity and do nothing but sit on their @$$ and say it’s government’s job. Instead of protesting which accomplishes absolutely nothing in the BVI why not use that energy for fundraising. The community can do a lot more than just complain. Some people really cant help like they would want to but a lot of the complainers have profitable businesses or high earning jobs but only think of themselves. Every time a church is built the congregation gets together, rich and poor with donations and the actual workers are usually members of the church that use their skills and sweat to build the church. The difference is when it comes to government their is no charity and vendors charge their highest rates because they feel government money is limitless.
Lol,,I’m all ears,
Hmm, well intentioned but sadly that’s enough money to build back a very small section of the same quality of structure that was blown down in 2017. Why doesn’t the BVI government just sell the 250 million in cocaine “found” in the territory and build a resilient structure that may last a little longer? Maybe I should be the new financial secretary… My work here is done boys and girls. Time to go cash in my free drink coupon provided by the minister a few weeks ago and sit at the beach. Wait a minute, I never got one!
As everyone has already pointed out that the small change donated is tiny compared to the millions been given out. How much were the security contracts? How much is 10 percent of that. It’s all smoke and mirrors. This is just to get good press but go and drive round and follow up on all the projects started…
we know it’s just a publicity stunt to appear holy ( it’s just some of the taxpayers money ? ) what next ?
I am a little confused! My first question would be whose responsibility it is to build schools?