Found at: http://www.anguillaguide.com/article/articleprint/5173/-1/140/
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50 Computers For Schools From Anguilla Masonry Products
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Anguilla Masonry Products (AMP), a fast-developing company owned by Rayme Lake, has made the biggest private sector contribution so far to a Ministry and Department of Education programme to provide all the public schools on the island with computers in the classrooms.
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Members of the Official Party at the Presentation Ceremony
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A handing over ceremony was held at the company’s operations premises on Tuesday, September 11, where there was a recently-arrived container with 50 Dell computers.
The opening remarks were delivered by Pat Hunte, AMP’s Strategic Consultant. He said the company started operations in Brimigen in 1981 with a staff of 2 and limited equipment. Within a year, however, the company was able to purchase 3 concrete mixer trucks and an additional pump truck. Sixteen years later there is now a fleet of 20 trucks, 4 pump trucks, 2 batching plants and some 30 members of staff.
Hunte said the company’s success was due to Almighty providence, loyal customers, staff, the National Bank of Anguilla, the Government of Anguilla and Albert and Octavia Lake, parents of Rayme Lake.
Dean Hagman, IT Administrator with AMP, thanked Rayme Lake for his vision and leadership of the company. He noted that the company had invested significantly in technology over the past five years in its finance and technical operations.
“This technology is paying great dividends for our productivity and also for the quality of our product and growth,” Hagman went on. “Mr. Lake recognises that technology is the way to go forward and plays a major role in the success of our company…He felt that promoting technology was the best way in which we can contribute as a team, recognising that the children of today are the team members for AMP for tomorrow.”
He stated that over the past three months the AMP team had worked to organise, procure and obtain the 50 computers for the schools. He was grateful to personnel from the Education Department for their assistance in deciding what technology components would best meet the needs of the schools.
His partner, Eugene Marassut, Operations Administrator, explained that the computers would be distributed to the following schools: Island Harbour Primary, Morris Vanterpool Primary, Alwyn Allison Primary, Stoney Ground Primary, Valley Primary, Road Primary, the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School Library, and Learning Centre and the Special Education Unit. Five of the computers are to be kept for spare parts and servicing. He said that all of the computers were the most current and operating systems and all have 17-inch panels which the schools and resource centres would find very accommodating.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Social Development, Rodney Rey, referred to the presentation ceremony as a history-making event in the development of alliances between the education sector and the business community.
“It is history-making because in all my 35 years of public service, I cannot recall a local, home-grown, uni-national company, making such a large and significant gift to the children of Anguilla,” Rey stated. “Mr. Rayme Lake and his principals have invested heavily in plant and equipment and I believe he is making good returns because of the patronage of the public and private sectors.
“He has now decided to invest in the children of Anguilla – the future of Anguilla. Mr. Lake and his principals are confirming what we all believe: that is, if our children are given the resources and the right foundation to build on, Anguilla will continue to be a successful nation. If Anguilla continues to be a successful nation, Anguilla Masonry Products will also continue to be successful.
“The gift of 50 computers from Mr. Lake and Anguilla Masonry Products is also significant because we did not approach Mr. Lake. He approached us, and said ‘I want to give something back to the country’ and he decided on 50 computers. All we had to do was to convince him that the brand he should order was Dell because we wanted to keep our IT infrastructure standardised.”
Mr. Rey thanked Mr. Lake and his principals on behalf of all the education community for the computers. “I believe Mr. Lake has raised the bar in good corporate citizenship,” he further said. “We have had contributions from other corporate entities, but this one is significant and he has set an example for others to follow – especially those other businesses in the construction sector that receive a lot of Government patronage. I am appealing to them to come forward and contribute meaningfully to Anguilla’s social development and to ensure that our social and economic development keep pace.” He disclosed that the Government had purchased 100 computers for the schools.
Minister of Social Development, Evans Rogers congratulated Lake and his principals for making such a generous donation, saying it was timely. He challenged other local businesses which benefited from the island’s ‘economic boom’ to re-invest into the community especially the children.
He described Lake as a visionary for establishing such an industry in the Brimigen/Shoal Bay area, once only a region for wild goats. He said the area was now “the industrial mecca of Anguilla.”
“I would like to congratulate you. It was timely in the sense that the Ministry of Education is now embarking on going the technology route,” Rogers said. “Last month we had the handing over of some interactive white boards [by the Governor] so that we would be able to get our children more acclimatised and more globalised when it comes to the technology and the computers that are out there. I must say that the children are more apt than we are and as a result we would have to prepare our teachers to deal with them.”
Opposition Member Hubert Hughes who was the island’s Chief Minister in the formative years of Anguilla Masonry Products, was pleased that local Anguillians, like Rayme Lake, were providing ready-mix concrete for the construction sector and that he was a role model for other young people. He said it was the responsibility of the Government to safeguard Anguillian investors from competition from persons and companies coming into the island and to ensure that the local enterprises stayed economically-viable.
“I think we have enough concrete plants in Anguilla and that the Government should now put a moratorium on such plants,” Hughes said. “There are people who are flooding this island with heavy equipment and some of them are fronting for outsiders. Government will have to investigate and ensure that these things do not happen.”
Mr. Hughes said the contribution of the computer equipment by AMP was significant because it was aimed at the human resource development of Anguilla. “I have a lot of admiration for Rayme Lake and he would tell anybody, regardless of the politics, when I was in Government, whatever he wanted reasonably, I was prepared to assist him,” he acknowledged.
“I know you have the initiative. I consider you as an industrialist, as a true Anguillian and as somebody who makes sense. Today we should all be proud about what Rayme is doing,” he added.
The final speaker was John Benjamin, who spoke on behalf of the Anguilla Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Anguilla Tourist Board of which he is Chairman. He congratulated Rayme for doing a wonderful job and following in the footsteps of his father as a committed businessman to the people of Anguilla.
“The human capital is the most important of all development and I think this is not the first time that Rayme has contributed towards our society,” he recalled. “He has done it for carnival matters and for schools in terms of blocks and sand. This [the gift of computers] is his most significant contribution which he volunteered to do. He must be commended for that.”
Mr. Benjamin assured Lake that he would always have his support and that of the Chamber and Tourist Board for making a worthwhile contribution to the development of Anguilla.
The addresses were followed by the opening of the 20-foot container packed with the Dell computers which will be distributed to the school shortly.