Denny,
First of
all I'd like to thank you for providing such a fine forum
for us Hedonites on you web site and secondly thank you for
turning me on to such a GREAT
project as the school goods donation a few years back
during a summer WWW trip. Every trip down to Hedo since then
I have made it a personal project to solicit and organize a
school donation with the various people I meet at Hedo. I
think we have made a small but significant contribution to
the education of many children in Jamaica by providing them
extra tools to work with. I am attaching a few photo files
from the school donation trip we had over this past
Halloween/Anniversary Week. Feel free to use them as you see
fit, either for your own viewing or posting on your site for
everyone to see. I have verbal permission from every guest
to send these pictures out and seeing as there is no nudity
involved there should be no problem posting any of the
pictures. In fact most of the guests suggested that I send
the pictures to you for posting in order to get more people
involved in donating supplies to the schools. Richard Bourke
is deeply interested in helping the schools that are
attended by the children of Hedo employees and is now
"spreading out" the areas where the supplies go.
The
school donation this year was fantastic, people brought
enough supplies that we actually went to two schools with
sizable donations for each. Tavis Smith organized the trip
out to the schools this year because Donna Grant went on
vacation shortly after the Anniversary Party. The first
school that we went to was VERY SPECIAL,
the school was "Retreat Early Childhood Development
Institute" in Negril Spot (just beyond Little London). This
is the school attended by the children of the late "Fergie"
Ferguson the bartender from the main bar who passed away on
Halloween from colon cancer (a few of us guests did get a
bus and attended Fergie's wake the night before, but that's
a whole different story). The teachers and the students were
awestruck at the amount of supplies that were donated; all
the students got a box of crayons, Mardi Gras beads and a
small bag of M&M's; the rest of the supplies were left with
the teachers to use through the year. Smiles that brought
tears to our eyes were from one end of the school to the
other. We had lots of interaction with the children and
before we left they treated us to a couple of "happy songs"
thanking everyone for the supplies. Tavis then took us to
another school even further inland near the town of Grange
Hill to a school attended by the bartender Anna Grant's
twins. This school was the "Solas Early Childhood
Development Institute" and we were informed that we were
probably the first tourists that had ever been up in this
area. We were welcomed with great fanfare and you will
notice the "welcome signs" on the door in the attached
pictures thanking the "Bubble Bears"(sic). In the picture of
the twins, the young lady with the pig-tails in the blue
dress facing away from the camera and the young lad standing
across the table from the camera are Anna's twins. Again
each child was given a few pencils and Mardi Gras beads (we
had run out of enough M&M's at this point
)
and the rest of the donation was turned over to the teachers
for use through the rest of the year. Anna informed me a few
days later that the twins don't ever take the beads off and
even sleep with them around their necks. These trips out to
the schools to present the supplies are always
THE highlight of my vacations at Hedo and all
the people who manage to make the journey say the same
thing. I sure hope you can manage to include the "Thank You
Letter" picture or at least paraphrase it in some way. I
would also like to add my personal thanks to everyone who
brought down anything for the donation. As a side note, a
few more contributions came in from other people after the
trip to the schools was over. These supplies were turned
over to Robert at the Nude Beach Grill for distribution to
schools in his home town.
)
and the rest of the donation was turned over to the teachers
for use through the rest of the year. Anna informed me a few
days later that the twins don't ever take the beads off and
even sleep with them around their necks. These trips out to
the schools to present the supplies are always
THE highlight of my vacations at Hedo and all
the people who manage to make the journey say the same
thing. I sure hope you can manage to include the "Thank You
Letter" picture or at least paraphrase it in some way. I
would also like to add my personal thanks to everyone who
brought down anything for the donation. As a side note, a
few more contributions came in from other people after the
trip to the schools was over. These supplies were turned
over to Robert at the Nude Beach Grill for distribution to
schools in his home town.Click here to view a thank you letter.
Respect,
