Thu | Apr 25, 2024

New Hope Primary and Junior High gets Labour Day ‘spruce up’

Published:Thursday | May 25, 2023 | 12:57 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
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Savanna-la-Mar Mayor Bertel Moore (left) plants a guava tree at the New Hope Primary and Junior High School, with the assistance of Jamaica Defence Force Private Antonio Ramsey on Labour Day, May 23.
Herbert McKenis
Savanna-la-Mar Mayor Bertel Moore (left) plants a guava tree at the New Hope Primary and Junior High School, with the assistance of Jamaica Defence Force Private Antonio Ramsey on Labour Day, May 23.
Deborah Dawes and Arrian Patman, contestants in the Westmoreland Festival Queen Competition, share in planting one of the many fruit trees that will surround the playground at New Hope Primary and Junior High School. Members of the Jamaica Defence Force, M
Herbert McKenis
Deborah Dawes and Arrian Patman, contestants in the Westmoreland Festival Queen Competition, share in planting one of the many fruit trees that will surround the playground at New Hope Primary and Junior High School. Members of the Jamaica Defence Force, Mayor of Savanna-la-Mar Bertel Moore, and Caretta Spence, the Westmoreland parish manager at the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission, look on.
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WESTERN BUREAU:

The just over 500 students at the New Hope Primary and Junior High School, in Westmoreland, are now enjoying much more pleasant environs, thanks to the work that was done on the school and its surroundings by the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation (WMC), which selected the school as it 2023 Labour Day project.

Several classrooms were painted in the effort, which was supported by the contestants in the Westmoreland Festival Queen competition, staffers at the WMC, members of the Jamaica Defence Force, parents, teachers, the White House Classic Kiwanis Club, and other community members.

Also, in keeping with this year’s Labour Day slogan, ‘Plant a Tree ... For Life’, several trees were planted on the school’s compound, especially in proximity to the perimeter fencing around the playing field.

Erica Cooke-Murdock, the school’s principal, said the day’s activities went extremely well. She was particularly grateful that the general teaching/learning environment at the school is now much more appealing.

According to Cooke-Murdock, before she became aware that the WMC had selected her school as its Labour Day project, the school had made plans with several locally based businesses in the Whitehouse community to give the school a facelift, so that project was linked to the WMC project.

“I appreciate the help from all the organisations who came out to support our Labour Day activities. When the children get back to school, they will undoubtedly see a difference in the work that was done,” said Cooke-Murdock. “I am extremely pleased about it.” More than 40 projects were registered around the parish of Westmoreland; however, the WMC, which was responsible for signing off on the various projects, told The Gleaner that this year’s focus was on the eastern part of the parish.“The goal of the day was to improve the school plant,” said Savanna-la-Mar’s Mayor Bertel Moore, who has oversight responsibilities for the Whitehouse division, where the school is located. The division is without a sitting councillor.

“The goal of the day was to ensure that the children’s play area was preserved by planting trees as part of improving the school’s landscaping,” said Moore. “Given that it sits on the banks of the sea, I thought it prudent to improve the environment of the entire school by planting trees along the perimeter of the playing field.”