DESPITE seeing fewer volunteers and being low-keyed when compared to the 1970s and early 1980s, dozens of community projects were done across the island yesterday – Labour Day.

The Labour Day Secretariat said that up to Tuesday 382 projects were registered, with the Corporate Area having 77, the highest number. St Thomas followed with 49; St James, 41; St Elizabeth, 40; Westmoreland, 37; and St Catherine, 32, the parishes with more than 30 registered project. Hanover had the lowest with only one registered project, and was closely followed by Clarendon with four.

However, a number of community groups, companies and individuals assisted with projects that were not registered with the secretariat.

The national project was the rehabilitation of the Bath Botanical Gardens in St Thomas. Dozens of men, women and children worked tirelessly alongside each other as they began the process of restoring the gardens to its former beauty, paving the way for the parish to attract tourists not only to the second oldest botanical park in the western hemisphere but also to the Bath fountain.

Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, who participated in the day’s event by planting a breadfruit tree and unveiling two new story boards at the park, said the restoration of the botanical garden would greatly assist in attracting tourists to the parish.

“If we can bring this garden back to a state where tourism can begin to market this garden overseas to visitors it will mean something to Bath and the parish,” she said.

Also on hand at the national project were members of the Commonwealth Writers Club who accompanied England’s Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, who came to have a first hand view of yesterday’s work.

Prescott used the opportunity to thank the Jamaican people, who he said contributed to the United Kingdom, and assisted with the growth of the country’s National Health Service, now in its 50th year, which was introduced by the Labour Government.

Meanwhile, more than two truckloads of garbage were removed from the Rae Town fishing beach during Labour Day activities in the Corporate Area yesterday.

Students from Mico College, Denham Town High and Kingston Technical High, along with staff members of the Jamaica Stock Exchange and the King Street branch of FirstCaribbean International Bank also assisted in the project.

At the Bustamante Hospital for Children, the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation erected guard rails, repaired the sidewalk and planted flowers on the outside of the health facility.

Labour Day activities across western Jamaica were relatively low-keyed, but several institutions, as well as a few individuals in the region benefited from the generosity of groups and organisations.

Among the institutions that benefited from the voluntary labour were the St James Infirmary in Montego Bay, the Barrett Town All Age School also in St James, the Haddo Primary School in Westmoreland, several community centres and cemeteries.

Houses for at least three individuals, said to be “in need”, were constructed in the parishes of Westmoreland and St James during the day’s activities.