Sandals Group Donates $500,000 to Repair Basic School and Health Centre

Hundreds of residents from the community of Flankers in St. James are to benefit from a $500,000 donation from Sandals Resort International, which will be used to effect repairs to the basic school and the health centre.
These community facilities received extensive damage to their roofs by heavy winds associated with Hurricane Dean, which devastated sections of the island on August 19.
According to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Sandals Resort International, Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart, who handed over the cheque on (August 29), to Manager of the Flankers Peace and Justice Centre, Marilyn Nash, $350,000 would be spent on the basic school, while $150,000 would be spent on the health centre.
“Sandals had reserved some $10 million to assist in hurricane recovery for groups and organizations and we want to spread it around a bit. We have developed a 25-year relationship with the Flankers community and have observed the work they are doing with the basic school,” he said.
“A tremendous amount of our staff members are from Flankers . we want to thank the people of Flankers as this relationship has been beneficial to all. Some of the hardest working people that you can ever find anywhere in the world, are from Flankers. For me, it’s just a pleasure that in time of need, we can offer our help to them,” Mr. Stewart added.
Accepting the cheque at the Sandals headquarters in Montego Bay, Marilyn Nash said that her team was grateful for any intervention from Sandals, due to the family relationship that “has proven to be real.”
“We lost most of the roof at these two facilities and so the money will be used to repair the damaged structures immediately. On behalf of the many citizens in Flankers, I say a big thank you to Mr. Stewart and the Sandals family,” Mrs. Nash said.