GRAND BAHAMAS COMPUTERS STOLEN http://freeport.nassauguardian.net/national_local/319495790866032.php

Monday, April 11, 2011

Local/National News YMTA expected to be operational by summer By LEDEDRA MARCHE FN Senior Reporter lededra@nasguard.com With the generous donation of computers and a number of renovation projects on the drawing board, the Young Men Training Association (YMTA) in Hunters is expected to be fully operational by summer. The centre, which was built by the people of the community and has been in existence for several years, was broken into and had a number of the computers stolen. Now, Eight Mile Rock MP Verna Grant and Centre Director of Public Relations and Fund-raising Simon Lewis say, the wheels are in motion to bring the facility back to its intended purpose. "We're hoping that we can replenish those computers. We are starting today by contributing three," said MP Grant. "A wonderful anonymous contributor heard about the vision that we have for the district and came forward and loan themselves to giving us these computers to contribute and so we are grateful to them." Another goal, she noted, was to assist the youth of the community. "What we want to do is ensure that our children are off the streets. We want to ensure that we have literate persons in this community. We have already been spoken down to, we do not want to continue in that vein," Grant said. "We are looking forward to all of our children utilizing this facility. We have a gamet-te of things that can be done and is going to be done and has already started." Grant added that with the kiddy field, which was constructed a year ago and a baseball field already up and running, it is also their hope to have a tennis and basketball court. "It' s a whole sporting facility as well as an educational facility," she said. "We have library books in here that are not being used as yet by all of the children and many people probably don't know that they exist here. "We want this building to be utilized for the purpose for which it was built and that is for the young men and women of this community." The goal is to have the centre outfitted with at least 15 computers by the end of the year so that every child who is unable to afford a computer at home will be able to utilize the facility. "It is a contribution of love and it is a contribution we're hoping will go a long, long way for the future. We can't continue to start over again, we just want to build going forward and so that is why I'm doing my part to help the community as long as I am able to," she said. "We want to let people know that they can use the facilities and if there is a fee it is going to be a small fee as compared to many of the other places in the community." The facility, she added, is open to anyone from one to 101. Lewis said he was "exceptionally pleased" with the computer donation and pointed out that it will help to go a long way. "In these communities there are a number of poor persons who really cannot afford a computer, so if we can get a computer system in here the kids can come here and do their after-school studies," he said. "Nowadays, not everybody is going to look into books and dictionaries when you can go on line and have those things in a matter of seconds. So we are extremely grateful to see that come forth today." The YMTA was partially destroyed by hurricane, he said, and was recently re-stored through kind donation from the Rotary Club of Freeport. He revealed that Grant came in shortly afterwards to offer assistance which began with the playground at the west of the building to the tune of $18,000. "Our goal here is to create summer leagues with nine to 11 or 14 year olds, take them off the streets. You can't tell kids to stay away from drugs, stay away from alcohol and we're not offering them any alternatives," said Lewis. "So if we can get four baseball teams, you're talking about roughly some 70 children off the streets doing something productive. But more importantly, we're talking about family bonding." Lewis explained that once the kids come out, the parents are eventually going to come out to support them and it will snowball into a community affair. "So you will have this community competitiveness where Lewis Yard will want to beat up on Hunters in baseball, where Pinder's Point would want to get involved and Hawksbill would want to get involved and we would have a wonderful setting."