Rotary Clubs of The Bahamas
MSC Teams Up With Rotary to Replace Group Home Roof‏
By Sarah Kirkby
Mar 28, 2013 - 10:06:13 AM

MSC Teams Up with Rotary to Help Columbus House Recently, local shipping company, MSC, donated funds to replace the roof on one of the buildings of Columbus House. MSC partnered with the Rotary Clubs on Grand Bahama, who seek corporate community support to meet many of the needs of this important facility that houses children from 12 to 18 in Grand Bahama. Pictured at a check presentation are (left to right) Samantha Moss of MSC, Dennis Knowles of the Rotary Club of Lucaya and Erica Sands-VardaoulisCarroll of MSC. (Photo courtesy of Derek Carroll for Barefoot Marketing)

Freeport, Grand Bahama – One of the leading international shipping companies in the world, Mediterranean Shipping Company Bahamas Ltd. (MSC) has come to the aid of local group home, Columbus House, to repair the roof of one of their buildings.

Columbus House is an organization that supports young boys and girls, ages 12 to 18, who are either from abused or abandoned homes and aims to provide a safe place for them to live, plus social support through mentoring programs. Many of these children have come from The Grand Bahama Children’s Home where that non-profit organization cares for children of a younger age.

Much of the funding for Columbus House comes from the community. While there is some support with a government subsidy and through Social Services, it is not enough to run this program and therefore Columbus House is very much dependent on assistance from corporate donations and community organizations.

The Rotary Club of Lucaya assists by helping with maintenance of Columbus House as part of their community service outreach. Recently it was determined that the six or eight houses that house the youth in the program are very old and are in desperate need of upgrades and the latest project was to replace the roof on one of the houses.
The Rotary Club approached MSC, who sent a team to do a site inspection of Columbus House and subsequently accepted the request to support this specific project. The visit by MSC staff shed light on the plight of both the children and the buildings they are housed in and what programs there are for children in need.

“I always thought that the Grand Bahama Children’s Home was one place and was surprised to learn more about Columbus House and how big it was. Their need is really great and MSC is happy to assist with the roof project,” said Samantha Moss, Documentation Manager at MSC.  

“We were so impressed by the work of the staff of Columbus House and the volunteers from the Rotary Clubs and we wanted to help by literally putting a roof over the heads of the young people.”

Dennis Knowles, of the Rotary Club of Lucaya, said his club works closely the corporate community to assist in such projects.

"We know the needs are great at Columbus House. The roof repair is one of several projects we are helping with there. This was a success with regard to teamwork between the corporate community and civic organizations. Next we plan to replace a second roof and hope that more generous businesses will come forth to support us."
The donation from MSC allowed the Rotary Club to hire a contractor to professionally replace the roof, ensuring that the building is secure for many years to come.

Staff of MSC were pleased that their company could support this project.  Erica Sands-Vardaoulis, Documentation Assistant Manager at MSC: “We see the need is so great and we look forward to working on similar projects for Columbus House in conjunction with other community associations. The leaky roofs are our first focus and then we will look at other facility issues.”

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