Some students of the Parkinson Memorial Secondary School were probably singing happy Christmas Carols when their Guidance Counsellor Kara Maynard called them to deliver one of the well laden hampers that were prepared just for them.

Days before Christmas some members of staff from Goddard Enterprises Limited (GEL) were seen busy collecting and putting together the items for these hampers for various families.

“We selected three families from each year group who we thought would be most able to benefit from the donation of a hamper,” stated the Guidance Counsellor “we have a lot of single parent households which have children with great potential who try very hard at school, but they just need a little help,” she added.

She also explained that because of the size and weight of the hampers they had to mobilise as much help as possible to get them delivered. Some community members helped and for those who lived outside of the immediate community, some of the teachers pitched in and delivered to students in their forms or year groups.

In addition to the 15 families from the Parkinson School, the GEL staff also gave out 14 other hampers to families in the communities around the Head Office, in the Haggatt Hall /St. George area.

Chief Executive Officer of GEL Anthony Ali explained “this is a staff initiative that we fully support, they go out and buy the stuff and we get other items from our subsidiaries, they put them together and work with the Welfare department and also get names from people who know the communities and then they head out and deliver. It really is commendable what they do”

Maynard also explained that the school has a breakfast programme where over 60 children are fed daily, an initiative that was started by her predecessor Guidance Counsellor Julia Edey. This initiative is also supported by the GEL companies.