Morleys brighten faces at Mount Airy All-Age

Dalton Laing, Gleaner Writer

MOUNT AIRY, Westmoreland:

STEVE MORLEY, his wife Kristy and their eight-year-old son Oliver out of England decided to visit the Mount Airy All-Age School a year ago, while they were on vacation at Beaches Negril.

This was just one of the routine field trips to the school that the hotel had adopted, but it turned out to be much more than that for the school and the Morleys.

Steve, who owns a financial firm in England, in which his wife is integral to the operations, says it was the approach and brief conversation with two small girls that changed his field trip into a project which he holds close to his heart.

"One little girl walked up to me and said 'Sir, can I have a pencil?'" Steve related to The Gleaner. "Another came up and said, 'Can I have a sharpener?' and then held my hands and looked at me and asked, 'Will you come back?'"

He said that he was moved by this little girl because maybe someone had promised her something and did not deliver the promise."I decided at that point that whatever it takes I am going to return, but not empty-handed."

The Morleys took back several boxes and bags loaded with a wide range of teaching and learning materials, including pencils, sharpeners, geometry sets, charts, markers, paint sets, colouring books, reading books, pens, a model skeleton, utensils, plates, and game equipment.

Breakfast

On the morning of their visit, they financed breakfast for the children. The teachers and principal of Mount Airy were asked to prepare wish lists for a return trip in February. These wishes were presented to the Morleys at a dinner treat that he hosted at Beaches Negril.

All was not honky dory for the Morleys, having had their run-ins with customs on their arrival. "We had a lot of problems with Customs, but we have written to the new prime minister asking him to assist because Customs makes it extremely difficult for us to bring the stuff into the country," Steve said.

"Our job is to help this school and we have great plans," Morley said. "We are trying to find out what we need to do to have a block built so that the smaller children can be on the same compound as the rest of students."

The school currently occupies two properties due to lack of space.