The Anguillian
Five New Buses Handed Over
2 From Kor/Viceroy, 3 From Government
March 27 2007

Five new school buses costing over US$300,000 were handed over to the Education Department on Wednesday, March 21, to provide a high level of improved transportation for the children. Two of the vehicles were donated by the KOR/Viceroy Group represented by Vice President, Alex Samek, and the other three were purchased by the Anguilla Government.

"This is a very exciting moment and a great accomplishment for sector and the children of Anguilla – that is the handing over of five brand new school buses," said Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Rodney Rey. "We have been operating an ageing fleet of buses, two of them are 20 years old; two 18 years old and two over 11 years old. The operation was therefore becoming increasingly uneconomic and we have experienced some embarrassing interruptions to the service."

Mr. Rey went on: "My position was, and is, that if a bus is not fit for the children of America it should not be fit for the children of Anguilla either – hence my insistence on brand new school buses for our education system." He was grateful for the support of his colleagues in the Department and Ministry of Education, the Minister, members of Executive Council and the Ministry of Finance for the purchase of the new buses.

He made the point that the new vehicles were part of the Ministry's commitment to high quality service including the plant, that was gradually improving, and the improvement and renewal of the curriculum being delivered in the classrooms. He remarked that this was in keeping with the image of an up-market destination being built for Anguilla.

Mr. Rey commended the KOR/Viceroy Group for their excellent corporate citizenship by way of being a very key partner in education by donating two of the school buses. He noted that the developers had so far donated US$1,000,000 for the completion of the Alwyn Alison Primary School at West End and pledged to donate another US$1,000,000 for a new school Island Harbour. He also thanked the bus drivers who endured the dissatisfactory conditions of the school buses over the years.

KOR's Vice President, Alex Samek, said he was honoured to handover the two new state-of-the art school buses to the Government and people of Anguilla. "It has been a privilege to work with this administration over the last three years and we look forward to continue to foster the strong working relationships that we have enjoyed to date," he said. "We are strongly committed to education as a means of empowerment and are proud to be able to make this presentation in addition to the one million dollars we donated to the West End school at the beginning of this year and to the personal donation by Dean Adler of two hundred and fifty thousand for training in Anguilla."

He looked forward to seeing the buses put to good use and observed that they were only the start of the KOR/Viceroy Group's duty to be good corporate citizens. "We look forward to being able to have additional ceremonies such as this and thank the Government and people of Anguilla for this opportunity."

Mr. Samek then handed over the keys for the two buses to Minister of Education, Evans Rogers. The Minister thanked the KOR/Viceroy Group on behalf of the Government of Anguilla, the Ministry of Education and the people of Anguilla. He noted that it should be the aim of developers to help promote the development of any society in which they intended to invest. "That promotion should not only be economical but should be social as well, for indeed the returns on their investment are directly linked to the development of the social services sector," he stated.

He commended the KOR/Viceroy Group for contributing to the development of the island's human resources including young children. He also thanked the tourism developers for the one million dollars for the school at West End, their commitment to providing another million for the Island Harbour School and the contribution of the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars towards the establishment of the National Community College.

The Minister assured the company that its contribution was of much value to the development of the islands social services. "We can't do it alone and there are good corporate citizens, like Viceroy, who will help us; and local developers also have a role to play."

Following his remarks, he passed on the keys for the buses to Chief Education Officer, Rhonda Connor, who was accompanied by other education officials.

The Vote of Thanks was delivered by Education Officer, Pre-Primary, Veda Harrigan.