Fifty students living in the government owned apartments, will receive a care package of school supplies from the St. Maarten Housing Development Foundation, as part of their "Back to School" goodwill initiative.
"While this may not seem like a huge donation to many," Managing Director of the Foundation, Henry Lynch explained. "It cuts some of the expenses that parents bear for back to school preparation. It gives them one less thing to worry about and saves them a few more dollars which they can put towards something else."
Lynch said that after going through the Payment Analysis of the two previous years, he realized the in August, there is a decrease in payment. "I noticed that just around the re-opening of school in August, there is a dip in rental payments and this I believe is because people try to make the sacrifice to get school supplies and payments in order for their children to return to school," he said. "The goal of the SMHDF is to operate towards the benefit and improvement of our community by making living affordable for people, so since we had a ‘light’ 17th anniversary celebration in June, we redirected some of our funds and efforts to assisting our tenants with school supplies for their kids."
This offer is only applicable for the tenants of the SMHDF since their stock is limited. "It will be only for our tenants and will be done on a first come first serve basis," Lynch said. "To secure one of these packages the tenant simply has to come to our office with the last Report Card of their child, as proof that the child has been promoted to the next grade and they will receive a package. In doing so we are also encouraging the children to do better."
He also encouraged other businesses to come on board and offer support. "The SMHDF has identified a need and took the first step to assist as best as we can," he said. ‘But I am urging other companies in the community to assist us by donating at least 50 more packages of school supplies and school bags by the end of the week. Remember, we can accomplish so much if we do it together."
The school supplies includes: pens, pencils, copy books, math books, hype agendas (a locally compiled agenda), pencil cases and back packs. Distributions of these packages begin as early as Monday.
Caption: (2nd left) Henry Lynch with members of his staff of the SMHDF displaying some of the backpacks they will be giving away to their tenants for their children.