From left: MPC teachers Symone Arntz and Femke Neunzig, Rebecca Taylor (Baker Tilly), Andrea Lewis (Baker Tilly, and former MPC student), with Andrea and Mario Bartlett (both La Vista, and former MPC students).
PHILIPSBURG–Managers of La Vista Resort and Milton Peters College (MPC) alumni Mario and Andrea Bartlett are the third group to contribute to the “Keep a Cool Head” project – a joint effort of the School Board for Secondary Education SVOBE, MPC and Baker Tilly to provide air-conditioning in MPC classrooms.
Bartlett committed US $5,000 to the project. This means that a classroom will be named “The La Vista Classroom”.
“Their input means that a third MPC classroom will be air-conditioned,” it was stated in a press release.
The La Vista Hotel group, managed and owned by Mario and Andrea, both former MPC students, did not need to think long about sponsoring. Andrea replied by e-mail to the sponsor request, saying: “That is so cool. Yes, I would like to sponsor a class. … I am actually an alumna. I was in the HAVO class. My class was the first HAVO 4 and 5.”
La Vista is the third company, after Port St. Maarten and Divico, to adopt a classroom. However, the Bartletts are the first former MPC students to sponsor a classroom.
Andrea is still proud of being part of the first HAVO 4/5 class: “We are the example that an MPC diploma can take you a long way. We have been successful entrepreneurs for 32 years and counting.”
La Vista is also a proud sponsor of the Nature Foundation and believes in corporate social responsibility.
“By giving back to the community and especially to the youth, we secure our future work force. Only by doing so, we can be in this business that is run on human capital as much as on real estate. You can have a really nice hotel, but if you don’t have the people to service our visiting tourists, you might just as well close shop,” Mario said.
There are seven classrooms left to adopt.
The Keep a Cool Head project team has received two more adopt-a-classroom requests from the private sector, which brings the total number of commitments to 15. Project manager Van Engelen of Baker Tilly said, “Five of these 15 commitments have been signed, the other 10 sponsor letters are expected to be signed before the end of the month. This means we only have seven more classrooms that are up for adoption.”
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/91683-former-mpc-students-donate-5-000-to-cool-mpc-classroom
Great initiative but also a reminder that government has its priorities screwed up. If useless parlatino trips would be cut in half, this problem would be solved for all schools.