Schools benefit to the tune of $30,000 each as students take part in Dollars for Hours
Bermuda's secondary schools received $30,000 each for participating in PartnerRe's fourth annual Dollars for Hours project.
The project pairs student volunteers with charities to work on community projects.
Education Minister El James attended a prize-giving event and congratulated the students for their hard work and thanked everyone involved for their contribution to the initiative.
The schools included Berkeley Institute, CedarBridge Academy, Saltus Grammar School, Mount Saint Agnes, Somersfield Academy, Bermuda High School for Girls, Bermuda Institute and Warwick Academy.
Funds will go towards curriculum development, classroom resources, bursary and scholarship funds, extra-curricular activity support, student incentive programmes, IT equipment, and infrastructure projects.
The projects the students worked on included a short film on peer mediation to be used as a teaching tool in Bermuda's schools by Coalition for the Protection of Children, a coastal and marine cleanup project at Walsingham Nature Reserve for the Bermuda Zoological Society, a woodlands restoration project for Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS) and a recycling bins project for Keep Bermuda Beautiful (KBB).
In addition, the schoolchildren worked on an office reorganisation project for PRIDE, the design and creation of a mosaic for WindReach, the restoration of Caring Cups collection boxes for Bermuda Cancer and Health and Bluebird nest box construction for the Bermuda Audubon Society.
According to a press statement: "In addition to supporting scholarships, the Dollars for Hours initiative is one of PartnerRe's major contributions to education in Bermuda.
"We believe that helping to maintain and improve the quality of education in Bermuda is the single most important thing we can do as a Bermudian company and this gesture is an important way we accomplish that aim."
Dollars For Hours, has had more than 700 students from eight secondary schools give roughly 9,000 hours of hands-on support to charities for a total donation of $800,000 to date.
