The K1 Britannia Foundation, alongside 3 other local organizations met with CC1, Buccaneer Beach Bar and Dominos to receive the funds raised during the “We Jammin’ Still” Benefit concert held on Sunday, Oct 22nd. Buccaneer Beach bar donated the monies raised mainly from Presidente beer sales and Domino’s Pizza donated 40% of their total sales from pizza slices sold. Vehicles for distribution has been quite costly and for K1 the funds received from this event will help us with transportation for the month of November.
We noticed that there has been a lot of negative coverage from the first week after Hurricane Irma and not much since so we wanted to give the outside world an idea of how St. Maarten is getting back together and that there has been a lot of positive change and development in the weeks since Irma. Randle of ATJ Photography volunteered his time and filmed various activities as well as over 20 interviews to give a picture to the outside world of what has taken place over the past two months post-Irma. It was also important to showcase what is actually needed now to help us move forward as a country.
K1 was requested to help the Government set up the Festival Village Shelter. K1 volunteers helped set up cots and accommodation to accommodate those who are still without adequate shelter after the Hurricane and also for those who have had to temporarily move out of their homes while they are being rebuilt.
We held various meetings with local partners and Government to discuss how things are going and the best ways to move forward.
Prime Distributors donated almost 1000 boxes of various canned goods, pasta, rice, and oil to the foundation to help us with our relief work. The donated items will be used for distributions to the vulnerable institutions we continue to feed. We added items from our stock of goods and made 200 complete food bags and donated 100 bags to the COME Center which is contact with persons needing this extra help to sustain themselves.
The other 100 bags were distributed to the elderly of St. Peters alongside Kuto and residents of Pond Island and Back Street. The elderly and residents showed so much appreciation for the help and we were happy to be able to give them relief when they needed it most.
Prime Distributors also donated 25 boxes of chicken franks and we delivered them to Hillside Christian School, New Start Foster Home, UJIMA, COME Center, Angelic Baptist Church, and Turning Point. We also delivered high energy biscuits donated by World Food Programme to the Sundial School.
Continuing with the constructional help, we worked with a contractor, Jacob, to compile all the information such as listing the building materials and tools needed etc.
Together we decided that due to a large amount of unemployment amongst youth on the island, especially those who have been through our programs, that when the contractor comes back, we will be making the two weeks of construction, a time of workshops and training for several of the young people we have worked with. This will enable them to learn the basic skills in construction, specializing in a couple different key aspects, with the goal that when the contractor leaves, K1 can help them get jobs.

Kat of Arena Base Café continues to keep us fed daily with lunch for our volunteers who work tirelessly.