LETHE, Hanover – Stakeholders of the Westhaven Children’s Home are elated over the recent donation of 100 gallons of paint made through a partnership by realtor associate Keller Williams Jamaica and Berger Paints Jamaica Limited.

Sydney Grant, manager of Westhaven Children’s Home, explained that the contribution will go a long way in the beautification of the facility.

“This contribution here this [last Thursday] morning has saved us significantly. We are definitely not in a position at this point in time to purchase what we have seen here,” Grant expressed.

“We are not in a position also to pay a painter. But the thought came to me that if we have the paint we can do something and my thinking at this moment, the next move is to organise teams…we will bring staff, family members who have their experts in mixing the paints.”

The Keller Williams (KW) initiative also culminated in the forging of a collaboration with Regency Petroleum Limited (RPL), who committed to provide the home for disabled children with cooking gas. RPL has also guaranteed to provide the home with a baking oven. Two cylinders of cooking gas were also delivered to the facility alongside the paint and other goodies last week.

The Westhaven project is an initiative of KW Care, an outreach programme of the company, which sees agents making a contribution from their own pockets towards a charity on ‘Red Day’, celebrated during the month of May each year.

Kerri-Ann King of Keller Williams expressed gratitude to Berger Paints Jamaica Limited and RPL for partnering with them.

“I am very happy that we could bring it together. And I want to say a special thank you to Berger for their awesome donation and for the contribution of RPL in helping us to make this dream come true,” she said.

King recounted that the initiative was hatched in a meeting with Grant during a visit to Westhaven last May.

“I’d like to share a little bit about our culture at Keller Williams. So, at Keller Williams we came here last year on what is called our International Red Day and Red Day is a day that we renew our energies, renew ourselves, energise, and donate,” King explained.

“And we invite all our partners to come on board with us again this year because the needs in Jamaica and around the world are great. And I think it is always a good thing when we can help those who can’t help themselves. So once again, I’d like to thank everyone for making it happen, everybody for giving their time and for Berger for helping us to bring this together.”

Neisha Bean, sales associate of Berger Paints Jamaica Limited, thanked Keller Williams for bringing the paint company on board with the project.

“Thank you Miss King for allowing Berger to be a part of this. I do want to thank you for giving us this opportunity to realise our social responsibility and also we just hope that it not only beautifies but it also contributes to the enhancement of the environment and the morale, as Mr Grant said,” Bean argued.

Chief executive officer of RPL Andrew Williams was also appreciative of the invitation to participate in the outreach activity.

“We are always willing to do community service, community work. We originated from Westmoreland so most of our community work is in Westmoreland. But we are spreading our wings now. We are glad for the opportunity to come by Westhaven and we are always hoping…we are a Jamaican company and we are always open to outreach programmes. We are willing to assist in any which way that we can. We give our commitment,” Williams said.

The Westhaven Children’s Home has a population of over 90 special-needs boys and girls of varying ages.

The home is heavily dependent on charities as the Government provides roughly 50 per cent of the budget necessary to meet its basic needs.