Posted by Fig Tree Team on February 13, 2002 at 08:38:02:
Released Thursday, February 7, 2002 at 10:03 am EST by Janice Mather
A happy tale for Cat Island children
By JANICE MATHER
Guardian Features Reporter
Any writer with skill can string words together to make a pretty tale. But it takes a special, kind-hearted
author to write a script for happiness.
Such is the case with Vera Poitier-Chase, who, after penning historic tales in "Take Me Back To
Guanahani" and "Pirates Paradise," has set about making sweet childhood stories for the youngsters of
Cat Island.
Adopting the children of Dumfries Primary School last spring, the author now makes regular trips to the
island where she spent summers with her grandparents during her own childhood. On her Cat Island
agenda for 2002 is a project involving a little creativity, a bit of skill, and a chance to make a little cash, as
she helps students establish a small business in making native produce preserves and sauces, to be sold
at nearby cruise-ship stop, Half Moon Cay.
"I think it would be excellent for them, if they're looking for a market whereby they could make some money
while they're still in school," says Chase, whose sea grape and mango jellies and jams are regulars at the
National Trust's Holiday Jollification. "If they can get into this sort of business, they could sell their
products at Half Moon Cay."
Though there's a distinctly practical side to Chase's preserve-making and selling plan, she also aims to
bring simple fun to the children of Dumfries, Arthur's Town, Orange Creek, and Bain Town. Last year, she
hosted a Christmas party, raising funds from a book-signing in Nassau, and from sales made at the
Jollification, bringing games and face-painting, music, singing, gifts, and a decorated pigeon-plum tree to
the children of Cat Island.
Balloons, treats, and a few afternoons spent learning to make jams may not sound like much, but for the
children of this island and school, it might mean the world.
"I go into the school, and I talk with the kids and see if I can get feedback from them," says Chase, who
was met at the airport by a cluster of excited children when she last visited Cat Island, and has discovered
budding pilots, future educators and hair stylists during her work at the small school.
"I'd just like to help them have a better life, to have the same advantages that children in other islands
have. I always thought that my father's home was like a forgotten island, not much happening there," says
Chase, whose concerns for her young charges include water supplies in Cat Island. "I think they deserve
better, as Bahamian children."