MANCHESTER, Jamaica – Stakeholders at the New Forest High School have broadened the scope of benefits from the institution’s annual 5K run/walk to aid in the expansion of the school and the wellbeing of its staff.

Chair of the New Forest High School board Trisha Williams-Singh made the disclosure on Sunday at the second staging of the event.

“… This means a lot not only to the school. At New Forest High we are 10 years old, so we are in fact [expanding] a high school. The 5K will help us to build an auditorium. We would like to develop our sports programme and this year in particular we have seen an increase in our staff members getting ill, so part funding from this 5K will go towards the launch of the New Forest High staff welfare fund,” she said.

“We are promoting a healthy lifestyle, an acceptable lifestyle and accepting the fact that along the way some of us get ill and New Forest High as a school would like to respond to the needs of our staff members immediately,” she added.

She said the number of persons who registered for the event has skyrocketed.

“Compared to last year I am seeing easily three times the amount, so I am seeing up to 500 persons and that is a huge increase compared to last year. What melts my heart is that the event has gone really well and I am seeing representatives from the National Irrigation Commission… and Agro-Invest,” she said while referencing that New Forest High is located in an agro-park.

She is also lobbying for the school to enhance its agricultural science programme,

“We have support for New Forest High to continue to grow as an agriculture school. We would like at some point to have an Associate’s degree in farming, because we have to teach our children the new way of farming,” said Williams-Singh.

Custos of Manchester Garfield Green lauded the efforts of New Forest High and its leadership.

“It is one of the schools in Manchester that I am very proud of. I have had to be involved with the school before and they have demonstrated discipline, it is not just about the education, it is about the discipline of the students. We want to commend the school leadership and the students and parents for that,” he said.

Educator and Councillor of the Alligator Pond division, the People’s National Party’s Omar Robinson shared similar sentiments.

“When you look at an event like this it is awesome, it has a ripple effect across the community… Physical fitness is very important. We celebrated Jamaica Moves Day last Friday right across the country. This is just an addition of good, healthy exercise, principles and things that we want to see in every neck of the woods across Jamaica. We have seen so many lifestyle challenges that we are facing. The rate of this is really alarming,” he said.

– Kasey Williams