The grand opening of St. Maarten’s first multi-functional recreational park was held on March 24. This recreational park, which consists of basketball court, a beautiful playground and a peaceful garden, is located in Middle Region, next to Sister Marie Laurence Primary School. These facilities form part of the new Exceptional School – Sister Marie Laurence, which will reopen as soon as the new school building has been constructed.
During the ceremony, Project Manager of Foundation Catholic Education Sint Maarten SKOS, Tanja Frederiks-Vliegen, elaborated on the fact that the district of Middle Region was severely damaged with the passing of the 2017 hurricanes, not only in the physical, infrastructural and financial sense, but also in the social and emotional sense. Some substantial action is needed to give this community a positive vision for the future, which would include pride, comfort and human connections. She elaborated:
“Our Sister Marie Laurence Primary School is located in this community. Persons will say that it is a privilege for a community to have a school in their midst, and this is correct. However, we also see it from the other point of view, namely that it is a privilege for a school to be a part of a community, to be in(side) a community, and to be surrounded and embraced by the members of this community. With the Foundation Catholic Education Sint Maarten being a stakeholder in this community, what could we as an organisation do, together with our strategic partners such as the Rotary Club of Sint Maarten, Rotary Club Huizen-Gooimeer, and the architect Lyongo Juliana of OZ Caribbean, to help uplift the district of Middle Region?”
The aim was to create a new community-based school with amazing facilities which would uplift Middle Region on a social, educational and recreational level. Five months after Hurricane Irma, SKOS submitted a request for funding via the World Bank/Trust Fund to rebuild the Sister Marie Laurence Primary School. Sticking to the motto of the government to “Build Back Better”, this new school would be very innovatively designed, be built much stronger and offer a much better and conducive learning and working landscape for both the students and staff, by having the necessary facilities in place to focus on a true holistic development of the students so that they could reach their fullest potential.
This new community school would offer the much-needed uplifting in Middle Region on an educational level. The land adjacent to the school, where an old basketball court was located which was constructed in the 1990’s by the then-school principal Henri Brookson, would be the ideal place to focus on creating new facilities by means of an extension of this new community school, to uplift Middle Region on social and recreational level.
“Keeping both the students as well as the community members of Middle Region in mind as being the beneficiaries or users of these facilities, the creation of different areas would be needed, which would offer different kinds of activities targeting different age groups. The idea of this ambitious and innovative project of the Multi-Functional Recreational Park came to life in 2018, and because of its size and complexity, and the need to find different sources of funding, it took almost 4.5 years to complete. The professionally designed and engineered facilities can be used during the day, and now also during the evening hours, as the lights have been added to the street light network, thanks to the Ministry of VROMI and NV GEBE.”
The recreational park now offers a multitude of possible activities such as recreation, socialising, sports, exercising, relaxing, playing, and unwinding. As stated by Dr. Marlon Halley, President of the School Board, “This recreational park will be available for the students and teachers during school hours to help maximise their educational and social development and offer a safe outdoor environment where they can build lifelong skills such as social skills, cooperation skills, communication skills and problem-solving skills. The recreational park is also open to the community after school hours.”
The Foundation encourages all users of the recreational park to do their part in keeping the premises clean and presentable by disposing of their garbage properly, and by treating the facility with care to ensure its sustainability.
Foundation Executive Director Lilia Aventurin-Hodge thanked the following organisations for their financial contributions which helped realise this recreational park: the Dutch Disaster Fund, R4CR [Resources for Community Resilience] and the Sint Maarten Trust Fund/ National Recovery Program Bureau (NRPB), Rotary Club of Sint Maarten and the 10 other international Rotary Clubs in Canada, the USA, Holland, Belgium and Germany which contributed to the Rotary Global Grant, St. Maarten Development Fund, The Netherlands Red Cross, the Municipality of Amsterdam, Stay Strong SXM, NV GEBE and Windward Roads BV.
The Dutch Disaster Fund in particular, under the leadership of Rene Grotenhuis (may he rest in peace) was an immensely important catalyst in the success of this project, and Rotary Global Grant funds were utilized in all three areas of the Recreational Park.
The following businesses and individuals were thanked for their donations and/or assistance provided: Captivate Construction & Cleaning, Sherwin Williams, CGC (Caribbean General Contractors), Domino’s Pizza, Jerry Speetjens, the Chittick family, Caribbean Palms, Dijtham Antillean Paint, Lletybro’s Electrical Company NV, SXM Doet, FKG Rigging, Mr. Preston and Dow’s Musical Foundation.
The ceremony included a prayer and a blessing of the new facilities by Rev. Father Johannes, and the unveiling of a new dedication sign at the basketball court to honour Middle Region stalwart Alexander Richardson, a.k.a. Alec the Butcher.
The playground and the garden were dedicated to Rosalinda Connor. However, in keeping with the wishes of the family, this will be dedicated to her grandmother Lilian Adina Ellis and great-grandmother Henrietta Walters. These women were the original facilitators in allowing the Foundation to utilise the parcels of land for both the school, which will hopefully have its grand opening in the not too distant future, and the recreational park.
As a token of appreciation, Frederiks-Vliegen received a beautiful plaque from SKOS in honour and recognition of her outstanding commitment and distinguished service in the realisation of the multi-functional recreational park. The Foundation was grateful for the presence of Governor Ajamu Baly, the teachers and staff of SKOS and Sister Marie Laurence Primary School, representatives of the various funding agencies, invited guests, and the community members and Community Council of Middle Region/Defiance.
