Woodside wins the Carib Cement competition
WOODSIDE, A beautiful, rural district located on the border of central and western St Mary, is the inaugural winner of the Carib Cement Company Limited’s Build Your Community Competition, earning the top prize of a development project valued at $5 million.
Carib Cement will execute the project that will assist Woodside in developing an ‘Ancestral Garden’ that the community has identified as a step towards enhancing the potential of its community tourism programme.
Woodside is one of the Jamaican villages replete with history. It has connection to the Taíno, the plantation era and Emancipation. The creation of the garden will include erecting amenities such as benches, a gazebo, and a pathway that will better define the space and facilitate more visitors. Chairman of Carib Cement Dr Parris A. Lyew-Ayee, said organised and cohesive communities are cooperating effectively to develop their neighbourhoods and help to build a greater Jamaica.
“We wanted to see sustainable community development and as such, we partnered with the Social Development Commission to make this a reality. We do not believe in giving hand-outs because we believe that in building strong communities we will see strong parishes, and, logically, bringing about a strong country,” Lyew-Ayee said.
Peter Donkersloot, general manager of Carib Cement, in expressing satisfaction with the response to the competition, said the aim was to reward a community that is able to work together to win and thereafter successfully maintain the infrastructure for the benefit of everyone in the neighbourhood.”
“What has unfolded is the clear statement from communities that green, open and communal spaces are in high demand. Parks, community centres, and playgrounds were the top three projects proposed,” he added.
The competition received positive responses from communities across the island with 46 submissions from communities in 13 parishes. The highest number of submissions came from St Catherine, followed by St Andrew, with St Thomas, Manchester and Kingston tying for the third-highest number of submissions.
According to Klao Bell-Lewis, manager of communication and community outreach at Carib Cement, Woodside had been seeking development support for some time, and the win signifies the continued support of the company in its unwavering support to Jamaica.