Philipsburg:--- The AHEAD Center of Excellence in St Maarten a school for children with learning challenges (autism) and other issues that do not allow them to attend regular public education, received supplies and funds from Dade City Rotary Club which partnered with Rotary International's District 7020 in the Caribbean (Rotary Club of St. Maarten), the East Side 8 (Pasco County, Florida) Rotary Clubs, First United Methodist Church of Zephyrhills and Regent Seven Seas Cruise Lines. School supplies were gathered and shipped to Regent's headquarters for loading aboard the Seven Seas Navigator in January. Dade City Rotarian John Wheeler coordinated the collections and delivered the donated supplies to the school with assistance from Regent and St. Maarten Rotary Club President Rebecca Low, board members Henna Budhrani , Pierre Decelles and Maria Buncamper-Molanus during the Navigator's Western Caribbean cruise port call.Eleven boxes of school supplies were provided and shipped (at a discount) with the donated funds to Regent Seven Seas Cruises headquarters in Miami. The Vice President of Guest Services, Gair O'Neill, arranged to have the supplies loaded aboard the SS Navigator on January 6th, the departure date of a Caribbean cruise. Henna Budhrani of the Rotary Club of St. Maarten identified the needs of the school and made the arrangements on St. Maarten in anticipation of the SS Navigator's arrival on January 11th.
Dade City, Florida, USA Rotarian Captain John Wheeler, USN/ret, initiated the idea after seeing the need on a previous Regent Cruise up the Amazon. Working with the Caribbean Rotary Coordinator the school and local coordinator Mrs. Budhrani, needs were identified and the generosity of Rotarians became a reality.
The Rotary Club of St. Maarten thanks captain John Wheeler and join him in thanking Date City, San Antonio, Wesley Chapel, Zephyrhills Daybreak and Dade City Sunrise, First Methodist Church of Zephyrhills, Village Grove Home Owners Association, Goin Postal and Regent Corporate Office and the captain and crew of Regent's SS Navigator.The supplies include such items as letter-size (8.5x11) white paper, Wipe out/Whiteout, manila folders (letter size), black, blue, and red pens, pencils, coloring pencils, White Board markers, index cards, construction paper of different sizes, note books, rulers, colored magnets of different sizes, scissors (large & art size), staplers & staples, and elastic bands.
The project was concluded at the lunch meeting of the club held at the Sundial School's Restaurant. Guest speaker at this meeting was Art of Living teacher and Chairman Dushant Ji who spoke to all present about overcoming stress, depression and violent tendencies.
Rotary Club of St. Maarten would like to commend the Sundial School for hosting the large group of 41 persons at the recently renovated "learning "restaurant and encourages the general public to visit the school's restaurant for lunch on Wednesdays and Thursdays.