By Steven Knipp
steve@caymannetnews.com

Scores of teenagers from schools all across Grand Cayman have volunteered to spend an entire Friday and Saturday helping to clean up the wrecked yards of residents of Cayman Brac.

Rotarian Lindsay Scott, who is organizing the pre-Christmas event, told Cayman Net News that “all the schools on Grand Cayman, both the private and the public schools, have reacted favourably to the project, I’m very happy to say.

“Each team that we assemble will have six people - five teenagers and one adult, and each of the adults will be responsible for the students under their charge. This clean-up will come at no cost to Brackers - in fact the kids will even be bringing their own lunch and drinks.”

Mr Scott, a native Bracker, added, “We wanted to make sure that after all the hardship the people on the Brac have gone through in recent weeks, that they will be able to wake up on Christmas morning and see their yards neat and tidy, making for a pleasant morning, and not have to look at the massive mess caused by Hurricane Paloma.”

He said that the two days set aside for the clean-up are Friday, 19 December, and Saturday, 20 December. He noted that the students and their adult leaders will fly to the Brac on Cayman Airways, departing Owen Roberts International Airport at 5.40 am and returning to Grand Cayman on the 7.40 pm flight.

“Aside from bringing their own lunch, they will also be instructed to wear jeans and not shorts, and they must have sneakers and not flip-flops. They need to wear appropriate clothing as this is a serious clean-up and we don’t want anyone to get scratched or scraped. But just in case, we will have a first-aid team there on site, to look after everyone.”

Mr Scott said among the teams going to the Brac on the volunteer clean-up detail are those from St Ignatius School, Cayman Prep and John Gray, as well as teams from the public schools.

In addition, “ there will also be kids coming from the various youth associations, and still more people coming from three different groups of Young Rotarians.

“As of last Friday [12 December], we had between 50 and 75 people confirmed, including kids and adult supervisors, but by this Friday we are expecting between 100 and 125 volunteers. Of course, the more the merrier.”

Mr Scott noted that “each school will be responsible for the students that they are sending” and that those young people being accepted as volunteers were “hand-picked” by the teachers who know them well.

He said: “It’s important that the volunteers being chosen be mature and responsible individuals, because they will need to focus on the work at hand.”

He added that any student wishing to volunteer a day of service on the Brac should contact their school supervisors, or principal, for specific details.

On a related issue, Mr Scott said that the Atlantic Star development company has already quietly sent nine of its employees to the Brac to help repair homes. “Atlantic Star has agreed to finance all labour costs and has also provided a trailer for the men to live in while on the Brac,” he said.

The Atlantic Star staff have already been on the Brac for two weeks and have fully repaired 14 homes to date.

“They will coming back home to Grand Cayman to be with their families for Christmas,” Mr Scott said, “but then they will return to the Brac on Monday, 5 January. Before they leave, however, they hope to completely repair 20 homes - their goal is one home each day.”

He concluded: “Though Atlantic Star is covering the labour costs for all these repairs, the cost of materials is not covered; but customers at A.L. Thompson’s can donate funds towards the project.

“They can just ask about the ‘Brac Recovery Account.’ And any monies deposited in that account will be used to pay for all the materials that go into the repair of homes on the Brac.”

Mr Scott stressed that the repairs are being done on homes for which the owners could not afford insurance.