Partner Re has pledged to give $160,000 to eight schools if they successfully help charities in a community project.

Partner Re CEO Patrick Thiele said each school team made up of students aged 14 to 18 must participate in projects to assist the environment, health-initiatives, children and the disabled to get $20,000.

?We hope this project will touch schools, students and the whole Bermuda community in a direct way,? Mr. Thiele said at project launch yesterday. ?Dollars for Hours will raise awareness, nurture grassroots support and complete important projects for a wide range of charities.?

The chief executive officer said the project was the first of its kind for Partner Re ? a locally based leading global re-insurer ? and looked forward to checking in on the schools in upcoming weeks. It was a winning situation for the students, their schools and local charities, he said, and visible progress was expected after one to two weekends.

Warwick Academy students will help David Wingate and the Bermuda National Trust staff to clear a conservation site of balloon creeper ? a light-weight vine ? which is currently strangling native and endemic species on-site.

A volunteer group from Somersfield Academy will assist the Bermuda Biological Station for Research to clean up litter from Cooper?s Island in St. David?s, as well as removing invasive species ? like Casuarinas ? from the Park, Partner Re said in a release.

Berkeley Institute has volunteered to be greeters, runners, telephone operators and pledge readers at a PRIDE annual telethon on March 6.

A playground at a Sunshine League foster home was lacking adequate facilities for children, but it suggested a Saltus team include a basketball court, hopscotch and tire swing.

Mount Saint Agnes Academy teams will help at water stops, be route marshals and distribute goody bags at the Zoom Around the Sound walk on March 18, it said.

It said a mural focussing on the theme of ?inclusion? will be painted by CedarBridge Academy students at Windreach while Bermuda High School will organise T.B. Cancer & Health?s Sun-smart campaign in May by presenting hats, caps and water bottles to local schools.

Bermuda Institute students will paint the front of Hope Homes to improve an on-site shop which will enable the mentally disabled to sell hand-crafted items.

After completing their task each school must say what positive impact they made on Bermuda and the community, it said.

And it said it will cover the cost of materials and co-ordinate a showcase for students to share their experiences, once tasks are completed.

Minister of Community Affairs and Sport Dale Butler thanked the company on behalf of Government and the Minister of Education for its presence in Bermuda and continued community support.

?Very often companies come they stamp themselves with one presentation and then they disappear,? Mr. Butler said. ?You have worked with the Bermudian community since you have been in Bermuda, you continue to support the community and we are very thankful.?

Minister Butler said the programme was innovative.