- 6th Annual PEACH™ Project Aids in Improving Estridge Primary School Outside Basseterre, St. Kitts
Alpharetta, GA (USA) 13 February 2017 – Lonza Water Treatment personnel and its professional pool and spa dealer customers from North America teamed up in January 2017 to make badly needed improvements to the Estridge Primary School in Basseterre, St. Kitts. That Caribbean island was the site of the latest winter gathering of Lonza and its pool and spa dealer customers, which marked the sixth PEACH™ (People Extending A Caring Hand™) charitable outreach project.
The PEACH™ project involved 364 hours of volunteer “sweat equity” and a $20,000 budget for purchase of building materials and supplies. The volunteers painted the inside of the school, repaired storage cabinets and classroom doors as well as planted a garden for the school. This school has seven classrooms for 54 students in grades one through six. In addition, Lonza employees and the pool and spa dealers were asked to bring school supplies such as notebooks, pens, backpacks and drawing materials for donation to the school.
“The goal of our PEACH™ projects is to give Lonza's pool and spa dealers and our own employees the opportunity to improve the lives of others and in doing so to strengthen the ties between us,” explains Jerry Pierrottie, Safety and Health Manager for Lonza Water Treatment, who helps oversee the PEACH™ gatherings and volunteer work.
The annual gatherings also serve as a forum where the pool and spa dealers learn about new and improved Lonza pool and spa treatments, sales incentives and other marketing initiatives. The professional pool dealer customers sell Lonza's Poolife® Exclusive Pool Care Collection, BAQUACIL®, BAQUA Spa®, Brilliance® for spas and Pool Breeze® swimming pool and spa treatment products. The meeting in St. Kitts included 122 U.S. pool and spa dealer representatives and 41 from Canada.
The support from the local Ministry of Education was evident throughout the process, including during the work day. William V. A. Hodge, the Ministry of Education's Permanent Secretary, pitched in during the work, and offered the following insights: “Perhaps for some people, giving up a day in your office or work life to come out to the school to volunteer is not very important,” he said. “For me it is of vital importance. I don't want to be there sitting and wondering what is happening in our schools. I decided to drop everything in my office and come out to give support to the head teacher, her staff and, of course, the students.”
Jerry Pierrottie concludes, “This year, as always, we had some great fun together and all of the volunteers were delighted to be able to make a meaningful contribution in the students' and staff's lives by helping improve the quality of the school.”