A quiet sorrow settled over the room as principals of Salt Marsh Primary, Green Pond High, and Little London High shared stories of the devastation unleashed on their schools by Hurricane Melissa.

But the emotion gave way to hope as the three head teachers expressed deep gratitude to Sagicor Foundation for choosing their schools, among five hardest hit by the Category 5 hurricane in western Jamaica last October, as beneficiaries of this year’s Sigma Corporate Run.

The event, now in its 28th year, aims to raise $150 million to support the restoration of the schools. Hopewell High, and Mayfield Primary and Infant are the other two.

“On behalf of the board, the stakeholders, I want to, before even seeing what the budget is for this solution, to say how much we are grateful, humbled, and happy, and it is with alacrity that I travelled here this morning to be a part of this and to represent the school community because without this selection of Little London High the necessary repairs that it would take to get the institution back to normality would be a very long time,” Principal Garfield James said at this week’s Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange held at the newspaper’s Beechwood Avenue headquarters in St Andrew.

“A multi-purpose area that caters for students in terms of lunch break has been destroyed; we need total reconstruction of that area,” James said.

“We constructed four new classrooms and lost all the windows to that building. We lost a section of the tuck shop, the storage room went and the teachers’ cottage, we lost the roof for that area and currently the teachers are still in it because they are out of parish and some of them really don’t have anywhere else to go,” added James.

He said that the school, located in Westmoreland, now has several infrastructural challenges requiring immediate attention. Additionally, there are psychosocial issues that persist in both students and staff, and as such he was grateful for Sagicor’s support.

Acting principal of Salt Marsh Primary Venesha Brown-Gordon also thanked Sagicor for choosing the school as a beneficiary.

The school is located in Trelawny and as such was pummelled by the monster hurricane as it moved over the parish to exit the island.

“We lost our canteen, as well as the block that hosts grades one and two and the library. We lost our fencing, so our school is now open; and I mean, everybody can get access whether we are at school or not. So we are extremely grateful to Sagicor and the Sagicor Foundation,” Brown-Gordon said.

“Currently, we are working with my Parent-Teacher Association and community to get as many members, family and friends out to support the Sigma Run because I know that it will benefit not just Salt Marsh but the other four schools that have been selected,” Brown-Gordon added.

She pointed out that the current infrastructural damage to the school’s fencing also posed a threat to the compound’s security and as such she told the Monday Exchange that she was grateful for the partnership with Sagicor.

“As an educator, one of the most important things for us is to ensure that our students are safe and they are learning, and we know that school is a safe haven for most of our students. So we are grateful to have the Sagicor Foundation on-board,” she said.

Oraine Ebanks, principal of Green Pond High School in St James, shared the sentiments of his colleagues, telling the Monday Exchange that the hurricane struck in the midst of preparation to celebrate the school’s 20th anniversary.

Highlighting the many challenges that exist even as students and teachers are expected to head back to learning and teaching, Ebanks said that he was optimistic about the help they were set receive.

“The school got extensive damage. We lost corridor awnings. We lost roofs. A surge came in and the offices, classrooms, every single area in the school facility — the entire school — was flooded. We lost our sports facility, the fencing, the gazebo, we lost all of that. We lost files, electronic equipment and so on. It was really a fight,” he explained.

“Green Pond High School is 20 years old. We were just in the process of launching our 20th anniversary celebration and then Melissa hit and that has set us back a great deal. However, we are thankful for Sagicor. It seems to me that it’s a 20th anniversary gift,” said Ebanks.