Past students, community chip in to clean St Lawrence Primary

Old scholars of St Lawrence Primary School, Christ Church joined with area residents Wednesday to cleanse the plant of volcanic ash, readying the school for attendance on Monday when the new term starts.

Prominent resident Adrian Donovan told  Barbados TODAY  just hours after the clean-up began that the team intended to clean the interior and exterior of rooms, roof and open areas, in an effort to “assist the Ministry of Education in their cleaning up process”.

He said: “So whenever the school is given permission to reopen, we hope that St Lawrence will be ready and we are doing everything in our power to make sure that it is ready. We have to thank Simmons Electrical, they readily gave assistance for all electrical issues. We also got assistance from our Member of Parliament Mr Ralph Thorne who rented a power wash machine for us for the entire day.

“And we also got assistance with some bags from a member of the community. We have to thank Miss Donna Walcott who is the Government traffic guard and she is the supervisor today on the job and doing a very good job I must say. And the Ministry of Transport and Works for assisting with equipment.”

The school’s Information Technology Coordinator, Janelle Phillip, thanked the 18 past students, ages of 18 to 25 for their efforts and area residents who came to assist. She said St Lawrence Primary has always been blessed with community involvement which she said is one of the pillars on which the school is built.

Phillip said: “But what warmed my heart this morning is when I came in and heard mam and I recognized that these are my former students who are here involved in this cleanup effort. So they saw it necessary to come and give back of their time, of their efforts, of their energy to come and do this work.

“If you look around you can see that they are power washing, they are sweeping, they are raking and they are dealing with this environment in a very productive way. And, I just want to say on behalf of the principal and staff of St Lawrence Primary School, a big thank you to every person who has made this effort possible.”

Past student Justin Belgrave said many of the former students who were assisting in the cleaning effort are from the community and are happy to give back to the place where they received their primary education.

Belgrave said the team’s main objective is to ensure the students and staff return to a sanitary and comfortable environment that is conducive for learning.

“We are trying to get the children into the school as soon as possible so that when they come back the grounds will be all cleared, the classrooms are clean. All of us went to school here and we want to see the children come back happy too,” Belgrave said.  (AH)