Couple donates bus to Cayman Academy
(From left) Kenneth and Waynette Hall, and Cayman Academy officials, with the new bus
(CNS Local Life): A local couple has donated a 26-seater bus to Cayman Academy which will be used to transport students to and from the school. Entrepreneur and philanthropist Kenneth Hall, Jr, and his wife, Waynette, presented the custom-made 2017 Ford bus, equipped with seat belts and special driver-controlled window security, and have licensed and insured the vehicle for three years.
The bus will also be used to transport students and teachers participating in special events.
At the handover, held Monday, 16 January at Cayman Academy, Waynette Hall said the donation was prompted by some transportation challenges her niece, Paula Ann Thompson, a student at the school, was experiencing. The Halls then discovered that the school did not have a bus of its own.
“All we ask of you is that you all take care of the bus so you can be proud of it whenever you travel in it,” she told students gathered for the ribbon-cutting ceremony, in which deputy head boy Le-El Blake and head girl Kristen Reid officiated.
“We are Seventh-day Adventists first and foremost,” Waynette Hall said, in explaining their commitment to service. “When Christ came to earth He was a servant before He became a king.” In following that example, she added, the couple had sought ways to express their duty to serve as a fundamental aspect of their church and community involvement.
In that regard, Kenneth Hall will also serve as one of the drivers for the bus.
The Halls are members of the Savannah Adventist Church, whose pastor, Dr Ivor Harry, is also the education secretary for the Seventh-day Adventist Conference, with responsibility for oversight of Cayman Academy.
Dr Harry, who played a liaison role between the Halls and the school, said: “It is not often that we find persons with the spirit and willingness to discover and minister to the needs that exist around them.
“Cayman Academy Is indeed grateful for this outpouring of consideration and kindness. It is now incumbent on all stakeholders of the institution to honour God and these generous benefactors by taking the very best care of this gift, using it in a manner calculated to prolong its usefulness to the school.”
The school, which teaches kindergarten through post-secondary, is operating at capacity with 335 students enrolled. The increase in the school’s population and the growing complexity of curricular and extra-curricular activities have made the acquisition of the bus a very well-timed event, said Pastor Shian O’Connor, who is president of the Cayman Islands Conference.
O’Connor said that the school’s programme would “be significantly enhanced by this very substantive gift,” adding: “We are indebted to the Halls for their magnanimity and their keen thoughtfulness in helping the school family.”
