One of the legends of Cayman Brac is the story of how the whole community came together to build Faith Hospital in the late 1960s, when it was clear that the only way the Island was going to get this essential facility was for Brackers to do it themselves.
Forty years on, teenagers on the Island, their parents and guardians, teachers and youth workers are constantly pointing out the huge need for a place on the Brac where young people can gather to participate in activities within a safe and supervised environment.
Pleas to successive Governments have so far been fruitless, and since Hurricane Ivan, the imperative of reconstruction efforts on Grand Cayman seems to have pushed the need for such a facility on the Brac even further behind.
Now, however, one couple on the Island, Pastor Tom and Carla French, have initiated a community project to build a centre where young people can get together and have fun, and where everyone in the community can get active.
As well as keeping young people away from places that are essentially adults' domains with adult vices, the activities proposed will keep them fitter and establish healthier habits to last them for a lifetime.
The land and the building have already been donated. In addition, a good portion of work and some fundraising have already been completed.
Now, if the whole community pitched in, as it did forty years ago, to raise funds and donate labour, this centre, as critical in its way as the hospital, could become a reality in the very near future.
