TWO early childhood educators in St Catherine have been bestowed with the Kitson Town Builders Awards, by the Kitson Town Civic Committee, for dedicated service to the community.

The awards were presented on January 8 to retired principal of Kitson Town Basic School Beverley Robinson, and Yvonne Francis who served both Kitson Town Basic School and Kitson Town Primary School, at an event held at the Kitson Town Resource Centre.

Keynote speaker at the function, wife of the governor general, Lady Allen said the awards were an “important honour” to give to the former educators, and, “I am happy that this community has seen it fit to recognise those among us, you who have dedicated your lives to cultivating excellence”.

The event was held under the theme ‘Visionary Cultivators for Excellence’. Robinson served the basic school for 41 years while Francis gave dedicated service to the basic school for over two decades, and after upgrading her skills while she was in her late 40s she served the primary school for six years as a reading specialist.

“These years are testament of the commitment of these courageous and hard-working educators,” Lady Allen noted, adding that the name of the award was “fitting, because they are in fact builders”. She also called for the “best’ educators to be placed at the early childhood level so as to give children a “strong foundation”.

Custos of St Catherine Icylin Golding, in describing the evening’s activities as an “awesome celebration”, said she was elated that the community came together to honour the teachers as they spent years to “nurture the minds of young people. We say thank you for your invaluable work and unique approach to every child”, the custos said.

Gifts came from the Jamaica Broilers Group, the Jamaica Teachers’ Association, Sagicor Foundation, VM Group Foundation, Massy Distribution Limited, Chicklock Farms Limited, WT Feeds, Councillor Keith McCook, Full Stop Auto Supplies, and others.

For his part, chairman of the Kitson Town Civic Committee Garfield Angus said after many years of talks and yearning, the day had come when he and other past students could “say big thanks for the roles that you played our lives, for guiding us on the right path. Even in adult life you were there for many of us, never ceasing to lift us with words of encouragement and of praise. You both cannot be thanked enough but this is the little that could be done at this time”.

The Kitson Town Civic Committee was established in 2017 to recognise persons who have played vital roles in community development, and to care for amenities in the area. In 2021 it responded to a request from former principal of Kitson Town Basic School Joy Sterling, and acquired computer tablets for all the teachers to conduct online classes. In that same year the group sourced support valued at $200,000 for teachers at the school to offset hardships caused by COVID-19.

In 2022 it organised a successful Labour Day project during which persons in the community painted the entire building of the Kitson Town Basic School with material valued at $100,000 from Sherwin Williams Paints.