Lucaya MP sees a future for our kids

"Young ladies make beauty their trade and helping their community a must! Team Lucaya and their MP Neko Grant also assist the Beauty Culture Club at St. George’s. They learn cosmetology skills while they help their community. Seen at their annual presentation are members of the Beauty Culture Club, Dwight Thompson, Volunteer, Dr. Sharell Coakley, Advisor, Neko Grant, MP, Lucaya, and Kenneth Romer, Principal, St. George's High School.

Freeport, Grand Bahama –It is a known fact that our children are struggling to survive in this new millennium. The average grade is at an all time low, and for those in Grand Bahama the economy and the problems it can cause are all too real for our young children.

While we are losing many of our young men to gangs, drugs and violence, the Boys Club at St.George’s has become a beacon of hope for those just trying to graduate from high school. Lead by a new teacher at the school, Arnold Martin, and with the guidance of the school’s principal, Kenneth Romer, this club has made its main goal to keep these fragile youths on the right path.

“Academics! Academics are what we are concentrating on. The grade average is our first concern for new boys joining our club,” stated Martin, “We need to keep these young men, especially the eleventh and twelfth graders, focused on their studies so they graduate.” And so with after school study programs, teacher monitoring and self-discipline, the boys club is keeping these men on track.

Lucaya MP Neko Grant has been a steadfast supporter of this program. “It’s in your teens when you make those fateful decisions that will make you become the man you need to be,’ said Grant. “It is clubs like this one that are helping some of our children stay away from the easy trap of the criminal life.”

Each year Neko Grant donates this program. This critical funding keeps the program afloat, and where necessary, provides much needed help for educational material. “Right now, St. George’s is severely overcrowded, these young men are fighting to keep up, and it’s groups like the Boy’s Club that will keep them heading towards a positive goal, keep them in line and make them proud young men in our community.”

Following that same message and high standard, MP Grant also annually assists the Beauty Culture club, a cosmetology based programme run by another St. George’s teacher, Dr. Sharell Coakley. “I was most impressed with the food and clothing programme that these young ladies organized following Wilma in 2005. It was really heart warming the way they treated the children and families they helped,” Grant stated.

The Boys Club of St. Georges puts Academics first and makes staying in school top of their agenda. Making his annual donation to the Boy’s Club at St. George’s, MP Neko Grant noted how this program keeps young men on the right track. Seen in the photograph are members of the Boys Club, Arnold Martin, Advisor Boys Club, Neko Grant, MP, Lucaya, Kenneth Romer, and Principal, St. Georges School

The Beauty Culture Club helps young girls pre-train for a profession in the cosmetology industry and assist them with summer school in the United States to get their masters degrees too. “Currently over 15 young girls train on Saturdays at various saloons on the island,” Coakely said, “they learn a trade and Team Lucaya donation helps pay for our training supplies and equipment needs.” Not only a club to learn a profession, this group also teaches young women to give back in their community and currently assists the Home for the Aged with perishable donations on an on-going basis.

“I’m a parent too, I know how hard it is to keep kids in line and both I and Team Lucaya are extremely proud of these two clubs at St. George’s’” Grant said, “it will be these kids who will be leading and running the country soon and it is reassuring that these teachers have made such an effort to make it happen.”