The Sco­tia­bank Foun­da­tion and Unit­ed Way T&T (UWTT) have joined forces once again to make do­na­tions of steel­pans to schools, help­ing to pro­mote steel­pan ed­u­ca­tion amongst the youth of T&T and en­abling youth to con­nect with and pre­serve the rich cul­tur­al iden­ti­ty and tra­di­tions of our coun­try.

Two schools—St David’s RC Pri­ma­ry and El Do­ra­do East Sec­ondary—were the re­cent re­cip­i­ents of steel­pans, fol­low­ing from pre­vi­ous do­na­tions to St Mary’s Mu­cu­rapo Boys’ and Girls’ RC Pri­ma­ry and Matu­ra Gov­ern­ment pri­ma­ry schools.

The do­na­tions were made un­der the um­brel­la of UWTT’s Bridges to Suc­cess Pro­gramme, which is de­signed to strength­en foun­da­tion­al skills and en­hance the ed­u­ca­tion­al ex­pe­ri­ences for stu­dents. This pro­gramme fo­cus­es on im­prov­ing ed­u­ca­tion­al skills and re­silien­cy in chil­dren in un­der-re­sourced com­mu­ni­ties, with a fo­cus on prepar­ing stu­dents for suc­cess­ful sec­ondary school ed­u­ca­tion through foun­da­tion­al sup­port at the ear­li­est stages.

The do­na­tions of steel­pans un­der­score the com­mit­ment to in­te­grat­ing mu­sic ed­u­ca­tion in­to the cur­ricu­lum, high­light­ing its im­por­tance in the holis­tic de­vel­op­ment of the child.

“To­geth­er, we can help young peo­ple re­alise their full po­ten­tial. Through this gift of steel­pans, we are help­ing stu­dents cel­e­brate cul­ture, build con­fi­dence, and con­nect through cre­ativ­i­ty. Thank you to the Sco­tia­bank Foun­da­tion for mak­ing this pos­si­ble,” UWTT CEO Gail Sook­nar­ine com­ment­ed.

On be­half of the staff and stu­dents at St David RC Pri­ma­ry School, prin­ci­pal Gin­nall Thomas ex­pressed deep grat­i­tude for the ini­tia­tive tak­en by the Sco­tia­bank Foun­da­tion and UWTT.

“James 1:17 states that every good gift and every per­fect gift comes from the Lord. It is with a thank­ful and grate­ful heart that the St David’s RC School fam­i­ly say a heart-filled thank you to Sco­tia­bank. It was cer­tain­ly an ho­n­our to have re­ceived the steel­pans.

“Equal­ly mean­ing­ful was the op­por­tu­ni­ty to have in­ter­act­ed with your team mem­bers. They were filled with pas­sion, sin­cer­i­ty and dili­gence. Your con­tri­bu­tion has not on­ly en­riched our mu­sic pro­gramme at St David’s RC, but has al­so left a last­ing im­pres­sion on our stu­dents and staff. Thank you for mak­ing a dif­fer­ence in our school com­mu­ni­ty,” Thomas said.

Al­lan Go­nourie, prin­ci­pal of El Do­ra­do East Sec­ondary School, said the do­na­tion helps stu­dents pur­sue their dreams.

“We wish to thank the Sco­tia­bank Foun­da­tion for your gen­er­ous do­na­tion of steel­pans to El Do­ra­do East Sec­ondary School. It is donors like you that as­sist in keep­ing our mis­sion of pro­duc­ing all-round­ed stu­dents at El Do­ra­do East Sec­ondary School an at­tain­able goal.

“We at El Do­ra­do East Sec­ondary School are deeply ho­n­oured to have you as a part­ner and sup­port­er of our Blue Steel Pan Or­ches­tra. Your per­se­ver­ance to make this han­dover a re­al­i­ty speaks vol­umes about the heart and cor­po­rate val­ue sys­tem es­poused by your or­gan­i­sa­tion. Your con­tri­bu­tion has al­lowed us to as­sist stu­dents pur­sue their dreams of play­ing a steel­pan.

“We are com­mit­ted to mak­ing your in­vest­ment worth­while and will work dili­gent­ly to achieve our mu­sic goals. Once again, thank you for your un­wa­ver­ing sup­port.”

Gayle Pa­zos, se­nior VP and man­ag­ing di­rec­tor at Sco­tia­bank T&T, com­ment­ed, “We are proud to con­tin­ue to col­lab­o­rate with UWTT on this ini­tia­tive. Steel­pan ed­u­ca­tion is im­por­tant as it en­hances cog­ni­tive, lit­er­a­cy and nu­mer­a­cy skills, and fos­ters per­son­al and so­cial de­vel­op­ment, all while ig­nit­ing a pas­sion for our na­tion­al in­stru­ment and pre­serv­ing a vi­tal as­pect of our cul­ture.”