Eliz­a­beth Gon­za­les

The Black Rock Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School host­ed its 10th an­nu­al walkathon this morn­ing un­der the theme Be a Bet­ter You, part­ner­ing with res­i­dents and par­ents to en­cour­age pos­i­tive change in the com­mu­ni­ty.

Funds raised from the event will go to­ward build­ing a play park for stu­dents, mak­ing the peace walk both a char­i­ta­ble and com­mu­ni­ty-build­ing ef­fort. Over the past months, the Black Rock com­mu­ni­ty has faced ris­ing crime and vi­o­lence, in­clud­ing To­ba­go’s first record­ed quadru­ple mur­der last Ju­ly where four men were shot dead at the heart of the com­mu­ni­ty.

This rocked the is­land caus­ing res­i­dents to call for a shake-up among crim­i­nal el­e­ments. Prin­ci­pal Keisha Cal­len­der said the chil­dren were ex­cit­ed to par­tic­i­pate in the peace walk, be­liev­ing their voic­es and mes­sages could help in­spire change among their peers, rel­a­tives, and res­i­dents in the com­mu­ni­ty.

The prin­ci­pal be­lieves the ini­tia­tive not on­ly rais­es funds but al­so cre­ates a sense of re­spon­si­bil­i­ty and uni­ty with­in the com­mu­ni­ty.