Tourism in the St. George's community will be the focus of East End Primary School students during their commemoration of Education Month. According to acting principal, Wendell Smith, the school is honouring those residents who have played an important part in the development and success of Bermuda tourism. "We have a collection of people from various areas in the tourism industry,'' said Mr. Smith. "We've selected journalists, artists, sportsmen, and politicians to name a few, and will be honouring these outstanding citizens who we feel have had a positive impact on tourism. It's going to be quite a significant event, we feel.'' Staff members selected 24 worthy individuals, he said, from a list compiled with the help of parents and students. "We felt that because tourism is so important to Bermuda, it was only right that all students should learn about it -- from Primary 1 on up. We feel it serves three objectives -- it provides the children with recognisable role models in their community, it gives them a greater appreciation for tourism, and it unifies the St. George's community as we honour outstanding people who are still alive. Too often we wait until after people have passed on. Why can't we say good things about them while they are still alive? "What we're doing is having all the children together in the assembly hall to listen as each person comes and speaks, which takes about 15, 20 minutes, and then there's a question and answer period where the children are free to ask whatever they like about their careers, what they feel about tourism in Bermuda and what they consider to be the key to their success within the area of tourism. "So far we've had (former Bermuda library head) Cyril Packwood, (photographer) Scott Stallard, (artist) Otto Trott and St. George's mayor, Henry Hayward and we have plans to honour those in various other fields as well. And on February 28, we will hold a formal function during which the children will speak about those persons we have honoured in St. George's and have them come up and receive a plaque. It's going to be a grand event.'' Also planned during the month to help the students gain a greater appreciation of the tourism industry is a visit to Marriott's Castle Harbour hotel, he added.

And each class has been asked to select a tourist location in Bermuda such as Gibbs Hill Lighthouse or Crystal Caves, and write about it. They'll put pictures of those places up in their classrooms and visit that destination and as they visit other classes they can learn about the sites chosen by other classes.'' PHOTO East End's Acting principal, Wendell Smith St. George's mayor Henry Hayward Photographer, Scott Stallard Former Bermuda library head Cyril Packwood EDUCATION MONTH ED