MONTEGO BAY, St James – The Sandals Foundation raised nearly $2 million for its plans to build the world’s first Green Globe certified basic school in Culloden, Westmoreland, from a 12-hour Spin-a-Thon at Margaritaville, Montego Bay Sunday.

The event, which ran from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm, saw the young foundation partnering with Montego Bay’s new spinning gym, Goodfit, Margaritaville and Rain Forest to transform the popular entertainment haunt into a bustling gymnasium with fitness enthusiasts from Miami, Kingston and Montego Bay lining up to take their turns on the aerobic exercise machines.

Some 180 young students will be accomodated at the Culloden Early Childhood Education on completion, according to Heidi Clarke, Sandals Foundation co-ordinator.

Green Globe is the international benchmarking and certification programme for the Travel and Tourism industry, based on the Agenda 21 principles for Sustainable Development adopted at the United Nations Rio De Janeiro Earth Summit in 1992. The Green Globe Standards are designed to assist organisations and communities to become environmentally responsible.

Natalie Desnoes, owner of the Goodfit spinning cardio centre in Freeport Montego Bay, said she was enthused to be a part of the fund-raising effort.

“Goodfit’s high energy spinning is able to burn between 500 calorioes and 900 calories within 45 minutes, so it’s high energy fun ride on bikes”.

Ian Dear, CEO of Margaritaville, also expressed enthusiasm.

“The Sandals Foundation is a great, great idea. The world is in a state of flux and people are looking for help especially now. And when they see a great company like Sandals stepping up to the plate to help the communities at a time when there is so much disruption, it can’t be ignored. We had to lend our hand also to participate,” he said.

The Sandals Foundation was set up last month to harness the resources, talents, partnerships and awareness of individuals and companies behind the Sandals Resorts brand to tackle several issues affecting the Caribbean.