Each year PartnerRe sponsors the “Dollars for Hours” initiative which generously donates $30,000 to each participating public/private school throughout Bermuda.

Each school is assigned a local non-profit charity and is charged with various tasks that will benefit the participating charity and have a positive impact on Bermuda and the community.

Warwick Academy partnered with the Salvation Army, which is well known for successfully operating residential and non-residential programmes in Bermuda and have operated various support services for more than 35 years.

The Salvation Army has been an excellent social partner and remains committed to assisting the Government of Bermuda with the ongoing challenges of meeting the needs of the homeless and those less fortunate than others. Two projects were assigned to the Warwick Academy students: the Salvation Army Thrift Store and the Emergency Housing Centre in Hamilton.

The Thrift Store project volunteers Mae Ooi, Kaleb Hamilton, Brittany Siddle, Tyson Barnett, and Shannon Hassell volunteered their time to sort, fold and rack the donated clothes for the Salvation Army Thrift Store. The students arrived early at the sorting facility in the basement of the Salvation Army premises in Queen Street.

They were amazed to find mountains of plastic bags full of clothing, kindly donated by the Bermudian community and eagerly started to sort through the bags, working extremely hard to clear as many bags as possible. They discarded stained, damaged clothing, sorted and categorised the various clothing and delivered it to the store. Through the exercise the students realised the important role that the Salvation Army plays in the Bermuda community.

The Emergency Housing project volunteers Year 13 students, Sydney Malpas, Francis Mussenden, Alex Bettran and Jari Tyrrell were assigned a project to paint verses on the walls at Booth 4 (kitchen and sitting areas) at the Salvation Army Emergency Housing Centre. Thanks to the expert help of Mr Dan DeSilva, art and design teacher at Warwick Academy, who designed the stencil and provided the tools to complete the project, the students went to work.

They spent some time measuring and taped the stencil on the dining room wall ensuring the wording was centred and straight. They then carefully traced each letter of the verse on to the wall. The final stage of the project was the most difficult, painting each letter and keeping within the lines of the stencil.

This was a time-consuming process because it took several coats of paint to make the wording stand out, but the end result was well worth all their hard work. Something as simple as a verse painted on the wall of the dining room at the Emergency Housing Shelter can make a world of difference.

A very special thank you to PartnerRe for their dedication, support and generosity of the Dollars for Hours programme which benefits participating schools, local charities and non-profit organisations throughout Bermuda.