April 19, 2006 — Addelita Cancryn Junior High Science Chair and teacher Vivian Vanterpool beamed with excitement Wednesday as her students received a long-awaited gift: 27 new Dell desktop computers for the school's science department. The donation was made possible by the Hotel and Tourism Association — along with Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, the Holiday Inn Windward Passage, Bolongo Bay Resort and St. Thomas businessman Nick Pourzal.
All Vanterpool could say through her smile was that she was "very excited."
According to Hotel and Tourism Association Chair Graeme Davis, the association has a very active education and training committee, which headed up the effort to find out what HTA could do to assist students at Cancryn.
Cancryn school administrators said Wednesday the school will be focusing more on science in the coming school year, and the timing of the donation was perfect.
A number of students who attended the donation ceremony had smiles on their faces as well — especially when they heard there were enough computers for each one of them to use.
Royal Caribbean Vice President of Regional and Government Operations Horace Hord encouraged the students to stay in school and "go as far as you can go."
An information technologies specialist from the West Indian Co. Ltd. was scheduled to set up all the computers Wednesday afternoon and evening.
Leaving the school, Hord and Davis commented that giving donations like these are the best parts of their jobs.
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