Long time board member Skip Wagner & wife Jeanne are regular visitors to Jamaica and always enjoy a great time at Sandals, Ocho Rios. This year they gave back some of those ‘good vibes’ by donating a computer to Galina Primary School located in St. Mary. On October 7th, Skip and Jeanne visited the school to present the PC. An eager school community greeted them along with a TV camera from CVM TV there to capture the event. The story went out on breakfast TV news and prime time news the next day! (picture here of Skip being interviewed)

Mrs. Ona Neil, Principle and teacher at the school since 1965 was thrilled to receive the PC and software bundle for the children to use. All the teachers and children crowded around the principle’s office to get a good look. MS Encarta proved to be a big hit. Mrs. Neil is now going to move into an even smaller office so that this room can be turned into an IT center, they hope to add more pc’s over the next few years

But Skip’s generosity didn’t stop there. The school’s only PC had broken down a few days before due to a power surge, the motherboard was gone and beyond repair, so Skip promptly picked that up and carried it to Syd Abbas at Netbase to get the tower rebuilt and within 2 days the school had another new unit. They were overjoyed, stunned and very thankful that people would come so far to such a poor school and give so much.

A twist in the tale…To get those pc’s here, Skip contacted Air Jamaica who it turns out also has a PC scheme going to benefit an IT lab in a Kingston school. He donated 2 PC’s to Air Jamaica for their project. In turn he got help to bring down the 7 big boxes. All was going well until they boarded the plane and they heard his name called, he and Jeanne exchanged glances thinking ‘Oh dear, here we go’ but the stewardess informed him that they were upgrading them to 1st Class. They were delighted.

After a very comfortable flight their name was called again, must be a problem this time they thought, so off Skip goes. But this time they were being met by an Air Jamaica rep that whisked them off the plane V.I.P style and had the PC’s on the tarmac shortly there after. The rep accompanied Skip through customs, who gave the AJ rep a hard time. Skip had to pay a duty on the school’s PC even though Libby had spent 2 weeks trying to get a waver. She was told the waiver had been faxed to Mo-Bay. But eventually they were on their way to Sandals, Ochi. On arrival at the resort they were told that they were being upgraded (again!) to the Concierge Suite. They had a blast all week, in and out of the resort and spread a lot of joy and long lasting good in the community. Look’s like the Lord looks after his own after all.

NB: A note from Mrs. Ona Neil. Principle Galina Primary, St. Mary. The staff and children of Galina Primary school would like too extend many thanks to everyone who has helped us in the past 2 years. You donations have helped in so many ways and have enriched the school and the pupil’s lives. We hope to see you again soon. If you would like to help Galina Primary or Port Maria Primary please email [email protected] for details.