’TIS THE season when Santa Claus comes to town, but this time old St Nick was at the Christ Church Girls’ and Milton Lynch primary schools.
And the children can thank Sandals Foundation’s community outreach programme for the visit. At Christ Church Girls’, principal Heather Bryan said they had been approached by Sandals, which had expressed an interest in partnering with them for the future.
“They wanted to give back to the community and were looking to adopt our school and we welcomed that. We are in the beginning stages of a relationship with the Sandals Foundation and we have plans we want to put in place. We are looking forward to a long-lasting relationship and hope to have our plans come to fruition soon,” she said.
Communications manager David Hinds explained that the foundation was the charitable, philanthropic arm of Sandals, whose philosophy was giving back.
“All through the region we do toy and back-to-school drives and today, although the property here is not yet open, we wanted to let the people of Barbados know we are committed to keeping our promise to give back to the community.
“We chose these two schools because of their proximity to the hotel and because of the relationship we have with Miss Bryan and Mr [Carlton] Reid [Principal of Milton Lynch Primary]. This was a nice way to reintroduce ourselves and let them know we want to be good community partners . . . It is just a way to say thank you and merry Christmas,” he said.
Reid said the drive was very timely as some of the children could receive gifts in hard economic times.
Sandals Foundation is already a part sponsor of the Christ Church Girls’ breakfast programme, held in conjunction with St Dominic’s Church, and has plans to assist both schools in the building of a library.
Between the two schools, more than 500 gifts were distributed, much to the delight of the girls and boys who received them and Santa Claus was the centre of attention, singing and dancing with the children. (CA)
