LDS church grants Portmore school million dollar gift

Recently the St Catherine-based institution received two standing freezers and a deep fryer valued over one million Jamaican dollars. The donation is part of an ongoing initiative by the Christian denomination to provide much needed support to schools, NGOs and hospitals in the Caribbean.

Principal of the Greater Portmore Primary School, Reverend Calvin Brown commended the LDS church for the role it is playing in Jamaica.

“I sense that it is your own ministerial mandate as well that allows you to see education as a priority for the investment of your financial resources, as part of your community outreach strategy. And so we want to thank you, commend you, we want to celebrate your act of kindness and generosity,” said the school’s headmaster.

LDS Church local leader Emeil Johnson of the Portmore Ward, said "as a church we are happy for this partnership and looking forward to further projects as we do all we can to help Greater Portmore Primary, the school of choice, to grow."

Vice chair of the Greater Portmore Primary School, Dr Neva Campbell calls the donation a major investment.

“My chairman is a banker and one of things I know banks like is deposits. They don’t like when you come to make withdrawals…,” Dr Campbell said “and so I am grateful that you can celebrate today that this organization is depositing into an institutio of choice. We are grateful to you today and for that we want to say thank you for pouring into the institution the way you have.”

Kereen Reid-Clarke, who is the Ministry of Education Community Relations Officer for Region 6, says the longstanding relationship between the LDS church and the ministry is one that they truly cherished.

“You have supported us in various ways,” she said in her remarks on behalf of Region 6 Director Sophia Forbes-Hall. “We have asked for your venues, your churches to be used for our teenager mothers when we are trying to integrate them back into school.  And you have given it to us for either free or at a very minimal charge and for those things we are very grateful.”