Prep or public school?

If you had the money to send your child to a prominent prep school, would you opt to send her to a public school in your area instead with the noble aim of developing your community? Would you also make financial donations to that public school each term so that it could afford to get well needed supplies? Well, this is what single mother and communitarian Natalie Boreland from the deep rural Sturge Town community in St. Ann did a few years ago. And no she is not rich. She holds a regular job as an Administrative Assistant in the tourism industry. What separates her from the pack is a strong desire to make a difference in the community and her belief in herself and others.

As a child Natalie attended the Sturge Town Basic School in her community and knew first hand the difficulties teachers faced. “I remember they use to have to sit down on a Friday and write the homework for every single child in the class so that children could go home with the homework because they never had the textbook to use,” recalled Natalie. Now, as an adult, she wanted to play her part in growing the school and this involved enrolling her daughter Ashley. “What I was doing was the amount of money that I would have paid for her to go to prep school I was actually using that same amount to buy resources each term for school …for the teachers to use at the beginning of the term,” Natalie revealed.

Her enlightened actions caught the attention of some of her friends and work colleagues who decided to join in on her altruistic efforts. They helped her to expand the donations to the school to include books, renovating the kitchen and providing appliances such as a refrigerator and VCR. But contributions don’t need to be substantial to make a difference. Natalie believes that each of us can look for simple things that can be done in our sphere of influence that can make a significant impact. She pointed out that the school also needed supplies such as toilet tissue rolls for art classes and “because I was at the hotel at the time I went to work and I told the housekeeper that whenever they are going to throw out the garbage tissue if she could just collect them for me and I got permission to take them off property so I use to take home garbage bags of tissue roles because I know they (teachers) would use them. That is one less thing for the teacher to worry about or to have to purchase.”

So what’s the driving force behind this small town woman leader? “Its about developing your community cause I felt that it was selfish for me to want my child to be better than everybody else when it is everybody else that she will have to react with, be friends and play with, so it is good for everybody to sort of be on the same level, so you try to improve the facilities for everybody,” she declared with passion.

With Ashley completing her tenure, Natalie is now an honorary member of the Sturge Town Basic and All Age School Boards. She is also a past president of Junior Chamber International Ocho Rios and is currently the PR officer for the St. Ann Chamber of Commerce. In a bid to continue making a contribution and developing herself and others, she recently participated in the United Nations Democracy Fund’s Strengthening Women’s Leadership Training Programme conducted by the Women’s Resource and Outreach Centre Limited. The programme prepares women to take up some of the highest levels of leadership in their communities. Natalie gives the transformational programme a thumbs up. “It’s like I was at a higher level; I was looking for more out of everything that I was doing or wanted to accomplish.” Send your feedback on this story to communications@wrocjamaica.org.