Cooper grants salary to Forbes Hill Cultural Center

Bahamas: The Progressive Liberal Party shared information that Chester Cooper donated salary to Forbes hill cultural center.

They notified: 

He subscribes to the biblical principle that to whom much is given, much is required.

And this is why he has donated his Member of Parliament salary for the past four years to worthy reasons that will benefit Exuma and, ultimately, The Bahamas.

In his first year as the MP, he donated my salary to the Louise Cooper Scholarship Fund, named so in honour of his dear, late mother. She instilled in her children an appreciation for the value of education.

The year after that, he donated his MP salary to the Exuma Pride project to help make Exuma even more beautiful.

The following year, he donated his MP salary to the Exuma Food Bank. This year, he is donating my MP salary to the Forbes Hill Cultural Center.

These have been the signature projects that he hoped to kick start with a firm footing through a substantial donation hoping that it would aid and that others will follow.

They proposed Forbes Hill Cultural Center, which will be placed at the historic Forbes Hill All-Age School site, which is envisioned to be a multi-purpose centre that will serve as a hurricane shelter and community centre.

They want to also transform the entire grounds into a cultural village where we can have entrepreneurship opportunities, including a periodic farmers’ shop, gift sales and the help for local cottage industries – such as crafts, spa services and straw-work.

The Forbes Hill Association has serviced on this project for a long time to see how we can restore the school, which he attended, and which distributed to the lives of most who hail from the organisation.

When a school closes, it usually signifies a disturbing ‘beginning of the end of a small community as individuals tend to migrate away to provide an education for their children. They wish to renew Forbes Hill, Exuma and bring about the vibrancy that was once there.

He was born and raised in Forbes Hill. It is an obscure tiny settlement, but it is a strong community from which many successful people have originated.

They don’t want to lose that. And they want to ensure that more young people from the community can get a good start in life. One of the ways they do that is through the cultural village, anchored by the community centre.

They have made some progress already. They’ve cleaned up the grounds; they’ve demolished the roof and the shutters. They also plan to move shortly to rebuild the core and strengthen the belt course.

And within a few weeks, they should start to see a roof take shape. They appreciate all the citizens and descendants of Forbes Hill and all of the residents and descendants of Little Exuma – from places such as The Ferry and Harry Cay. They will contribute to the Forbes Hill Cultural Center’s ongoing development.

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