HUNDREDS of Jamaicans yesterday turned out to clear drains and gullies, repair community centres, and paint schools and pedestrian crossings, among several other activities, as they offered their usual voluntary services for Labour Day.

The national project was the renovation of the Buena Vesta community centre in Myersville, St Elizabeth, which was destroyed last September by Hurricane Ivan.

The focus this year was on disaster preparedness but, as usual, the residents of several communities offered their labour to the several projects planned by service clubs, the police, companies and citizens’ associations.

In Kingston, the Jamaican capital, the business sector and the police took part in a number of activities, which included the painting of basic schools and pedestrian crossings and the clearing of blocked drains. Others repaired gaping potholes on some of the city streets.

At the Allman Town Basic School in Kingston, police officers from the Mobile Reserve, led by Acting Assistant Commissioner Lola Evans and about a dozen community members, dabbed the walls of the institution with fresh paint. “We have adopted this school for the last three years,” Evans told the Observer.

A few metres away, along Vincent Street, residents and members of the Apostolic Worship Centre worked feverishly to clear wheelbarrow loads of muck from a blocked drain leading to a gully nearby.

“Whenever it rains there is a problem, and we have taken it on today,” one man said as he shovelled away at the repugnant smelling waste.

At the St Richards Early Childhood Education Centre on Red Hills Road Scotiabank staff members, school officials and parents worked in cohesion as they painted the walls, desks and chairs at the school. The effort was part of a $20-million grant made by the financial institution in the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan last year. The bank assisted in refurbishing nine schools islandwide.

In Manley Meadows the young, middle-aged and elderly were all involved in Labour Day work, which included the clearing of an open lot and the trimming of hedges and sidewalks.

There was also work done on the Franklin Town Police Station canteen.

In other communities little or no Labour Day activities took place. In Fletcher’s Land, young boys played cricket on Duke Street while other community members were seen lazing about.

In western Jamaica, intermittent showers in Hanover did not prevent hundreds of Hanoverians from turning out to work on a number of projects in the parish.

“I am overwhelmed; the turnout at the projects was very good, and I would really like to commend the citizens,” Lucea’s mayor Lester Crooks, who heads the parish’s Labour Day Planning Committee, told the Observer last night.

The refurbishment of sanitary facilities at the Mount Hannah, Clifton, Bamboo and Pondside basic schools in Hanover were this year selected as the parish’s Labour Day project.

In the neighbouring parish of Westmoreland, Labour Day activities took off with a bang with work on more than 50 registered and undocumented projects.

The parish project was the refurbishing of the community centre at Bog in the Eastern Westmoreland constituency of Prime Minister P J Patterson.

By midday the project was 80 per cent completed. Residents, with assistance from members of the Westmoreland Parish Council, repainted the main building and the toilet facilities.

Another major project was the tree planting at Hermitage Land in Bethel Town, where Prime Minister P J Patterson planted the first of the 380 trees which were scheduled to be planted. The project was in keeping with the reforesting of this area, which the prime minister said was destroyed by Hurricane Ivan.

But the turnout to this year’s Labour Day activities in the parish of Trelawny was noticeably low-keyed.

Member of Parliament for North Trelawny Dr Patrick Harris attributed the poor showing to the lack of mobilisation as well as the intermittent showers that lingered over the parish for most of the day.

In St James, a team from the Coral Gardens Police Station and the maintenance department of the Holiday Inn Sunspree Resort, headed by Corporal Winston Williams, re-marked the pedestrian crossing in front of the hotel.

Corporal Williams told the Observer that the repainting of the crossing that had faded would allow the tourists and hotel workers to with a sense of security.

“There is a heavy influx of traffic in this area so the pedestrian crossing will allow the members of staff and tourists to cross in comfort,” Corporal Williams noted.

More than 25 members of staff from the Sam Sharpe Square Branch of the Bank of Nova Scotia, as well as parents, turned up at the Kings Basic School on Albion Road to give the school a much-needed face lift.

Coordinator for the project Janet Richards told the Observer that the entire building was painted and several trees were planted open the property. She added that the bank planned to render further assistance to the institution in the near future.

Other projects in the parish included the cleaning of about one mile of the John Hall River by the one-month-old Community Development Council of that community.

The non-availability of building materials, in the meantime, forced a scale-down of the work planned for the parish project in Clarendon – repairs to the New Bowens Community Centre in Halse Hall.

Shortly before 1:00 pm Deputy Mayor of May Pen Leo Hilton strolled into the community centre with a gallon of paint, after which others who were waiting entered the centre with brooms, paint brushes and rollers and started to work.

However, Mayor of May Pen Milton Brown promised that the project would be completed before the start of the hurricane season on June 1.

In Spanish Town, St Catherine, the parish project to repair the Sydenham Community Centre, which had its roof destroyed by Hurricane Ivan last year, got off to a late start, but officials of the St Catherine Parish Council and volunteers managed to carry out partial repairs to the roof.

President of the Sydenham Citizens’ Association Michael McNaughton said the centre is to be upgraded to an official shelter for use during a disaster.

In McCooks Pen, the citizens’ association painted a bus stop along the Old Harbour Road and cleaned the perimeter sidewalk.

Meanwhile, in the Portmore Municipality enthusiastic residents came out in large numbers to support the more than 90 registered projects planned by the council and various citizens associations and community and civic groups.

The projects included drainage cleaning, curb wall construction, sign erecting and painting, refurbishing of schools and tree planting.

Mayor George Lee spent the day touring, inspecting, giving moral support and supervising distribution of the 3,500 evergreen trees that were planted throughout Portmore, and the distribution of over 200 garbage drums.

Main focus was on Waterford Basic School where ground was broken by Lee and development minister Paul Robertson, and construction began for a multipurpose auditorium. The $3-million project has started with a grant of $150,000 from the Portmore Municipality.