LABOURING FOR THE KIDS

Residents of communities and corporate entities came out in full force yesterday to carry out Labour Day projects across the island. With Labour Day being celebrated under the theme ‘Labour of Love: Nurturing our Children’, most projects were undertaken at schools and playgrounds where the nation’s youngsters will be most impacted.

RESIDENTS IN the volatile central Kingston community of Southside had a very good reason to celebrate yesterday.

The celebrations began as they joined with employees of the ICD Group of companies to rehabilitate the sole recreational facility in their community – Parade Gardens Park, located at the corner of Gold and Harbour streets.

The park has been in a state of disrepair for years, but all of that was about to change with the installation of a new surface and perimeter fence as well as the rehabilitation of a basketball court and swings.

“It’s going to make our community more beautiful. Also, we as parents can feel a little more comfortable that our children are over here playing without having to worry whether they are going to hurt themselves,” said Carlene Watson, a longtime resident.

“It’s a more safe environment for the kids ... . It’s a blessing,” Watson underscored.

The rehabilitation of the park was one of several projects car- ried out in the Corporate Area as part of Labour Day 2015, which is being celebrated under the theme: ‘Labour for love: Nurturing spaces for children.’

Director of human resources at ICD Judith Bruce urged residents to ensure the facility does not fall into disrepair again.

“In Jamaica, we have this thing where people get things and use them until it ‘mash up’. But we are going to try and work with them and put up rules of things they can and cannot do in the park,” Bruce told The Gleaner.

It was a similar story in the community of Goodwich Lane, Mountain View, where residents insisted that they were taking ownership of the environs.

Through donations from large corporate entities and community-based shopkeepers, they managed to give the oftenvolatile east Kingston community a face-lift.

“This gives us more pride to know that we did this from within rather than depending on politicians ...; it empower we,” one resident explained.

The Police Traffic Division, located on Elletson Road, also got a major makeover, thanks to Guardian Life Insurance Company.

NORMAN GRINDLEY/ CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER This little boy takes a break during Labour Day activities at the police traffic headquarters on lower Elletson Road in Kingston yes terday.

RICARDO MAKYN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Members of staff of Tastee Cheese painting playground facilities at the Drews Avenue Primary and Infant School on Labour Day.

CONTRIBUTED Donald Foster, managing director of the Transport Authority, assists Pre-K student at the St Barnabas Early-Childhood Institute, Markelle Pottinger, in painting the playground facilities during Labour Day activities at the institute in Fletcher’s Land,...

CONTRIBUTED Pamela Fisherly (right), of Flow’s dispatch centre, and Naomi Francis (left), corporate communications manager at Flow, are hard at work with children from Burger Gully in East Kingston on Labour Day. The project formed part of Flow’s Labour Day...

Action Jamaica volunteers Chad Morgan (left) and Shanari Howlette apply paint to a section of the St Ann’s Bay Hospital in St Ann as part of the JN Foundation’s and Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association’s Labour Day activities.

CONTRIBUTED Howard Dyer, business account manager, Digicel, painting the walls of the largest infant school in the Caribbean, Montego Bay Infant School in St James, during a Digicel Foundation Labour Day project.

PHOTO BY GARETH DAVIS Some of the volunteers giving a face-lift to a building occupied by the Portland Football Association at Carder Park in the parish.

PHOTO BY RUDDY MATHISON Residents of Waterford in Portmore, St Catherine, carry out beautification work at the municipal park.

NORMAN GRINDLEY/CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER A little girl makes a hand print on a wall to create a mural on Goodwich lane, off Mountain View Avenue in Kingston, as part of a Labour Day beautification project in the community yesterday.