Project Santacade gives back to rural communities

By VonDez Phipps
Reporter-SKNVibes.com

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THIRTY selected primary school students rural communities benefited from a heart-warming act of charity organized by the St. Kitts Basseterre Leo Club on Saturday (Dec. 19).

Project Santacade, one of the major Christmas events of the Club, was held at the new St. Pauls Sporting Complex and Club members distributed school supplies, literary material and toys to 10 less fortunate students each of the Newton Ground, St. Paul’s and Dieppe Bay Primary Schools. The students were served refreshments and enjoyed most of the day kite flying, playing in the bouncing castle and striking their luck at the piñata.

President of the Leo Club, Donelle Caines told SKNVibes that in keeping with the Christmas Spirit and the organization’s mandate to give back to the community, the group chose to donate gifts to children in the East Zone of the island.

“We used to do the Santacade on a large scale which covered all the primary schools on the island, but this year, we wanted to make it smaller and target three primary schools at a time. Upon the success of this event, we will turn our focus to another three schools.

“We wanted to share with the less fortunate kids in the rural areas. In fact, a major focus of our group’s projects is to allow each child the chance to share in the joy of Christmas, irrespective of his/her socioeconomic background. The students were overwhelmed; they were very excited, very involved and certainly enjoyed themselves.

“This shows that we are here to serve the community, we are all about giving back. Christmas is a time where love and joy should be spread and we want to ensure that through our donations, we bring joy to children who may not have otherwise received gifts.”

Caines informed that present and prospective Leos socialized with the children and were given close insight into the community involvement of the group. He added that being out in the community offered an entirely different approach from the traditional meeting setting.

President Caines said the Club has hopes of major fund raising activities for the New Year to enable the group to extend its outreach and community development programmes.