CHANCE ENCOUNTERS - CHANGING LIVES....

                              (photo courtesy of photographer Cynthia Stroo)  

This post is contributed by a fellow writer and devoted friend of STEP Centre, Jamie Wrench. Jamie's post serves as a reminder that chance encounters can transform you and that once you find STEP Centre( and our children) you stay with us in the best way possible, and in the best place possible, your heart.

In honor of Jamie's post, our photos are photos of our joy across the years.  Thanks Jamie, for your devotion and your post.....  

                             Blog formatted by Leslie Wan
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In Jamie's Word..........

In the beginning was the washroom, and the washroom was on a campsite, and the camp site was on a tiny island off the south - west tip of England; and it was there, early one morning, as my wife Jane began the day, that she met Jane Peacock, who was cleaning the washroom; and they got talking…

Jane was a young graduate from England who had gone to Jamaica (despite the advice of the authorities, who thought it was too dangerous at the time) to work as a volunteer at the STEP Centre in St Margaret’s Church Hall in Liguanea.  At the end of her year she had returned home to St Agnes, one of the Isles of Scilly (the first you see of UK when you travel from America), and was working as hard as she could to raise enough money to get back to Jamaica; serving in the pub, valeting the holiday chalets, cleaning the toilets on the camp site, bending the ear of anyone who would listen about this little school for special children in Kingston that had love, laughter and… NOTHING.

Memories of yesteryear and the old school 

JAMAICA DAYS      

My Quaker meeting decided to send a donation of £400 to STEP.  We didn't know it at the time, but it was the first external donation STEP Centre had ever received, and it was used to sponsor Renee, a child who otherwise would not have been able to attend.  As the years went by, some really extraordinary things happened.  One of my friends was a ballet examiner and would you believe it, was sent out to Kingston to examine ballet students, among them the daughter of the founder of the STEP Centre, Ann Chong.  She and her husband visited STEP, met Renee and everyone else, and were just bowled over.  I wrote about it in 1999, and people sent money to my Quaker Meeting.  So I wrote a bit more – and they sent more money.  Then another of my friends said she’d like to go and do something useful before she settled down and had babies, and as it was too difficult for her to go to Kosovo, so we sent her to Jamaica, and she introduced not just STEP but all Jamaica to Music Therapy.  And she wrote about that, and people sent money. I ended up coming out, and writing about that, and people sent more money.  You just tell the story, and people respond.

In 1999 I wrote these words:

“…we shall go on supporting Renee for as long as we can, not because she is the most deserving child in the world, not because we feel Jamaica is the most needy country, Kingston the most deserving town or the STEP Centre the most worthy institution that exists.  It is simply that as a result of an extraordinary series of chances we have become inextricably linked…”

It takes a team...

…And here we are, twenty years later, still in touch, still inextricably linked.  What are the chances of that happening?  It is almost unbelievable that STEP survived; more remarkable still that it has prospered.  Even more unbelievably, I've been to see you – twice –and we’re still collecting the odd pound or two to convert to Jamaican to keep you lovely people in paint, or sparkly things, or feely stuff, or Marmite.

Easter Hat Parade

It’s almost exactly eleven years since I first visited.  I’d never been across the Atlantic before, and the first thing that struck me (after the applause when the plane landed) was the heat.  I was to learn that it was a cold, cold, cold month apparently, but let me tell you for me it was hot hot hot!

The second thing that struck me was a child named Monique.  She took charge of me straight away.  I had brought a suitcase full of goodies and Monique took hold of two drums, gave me one and ordered me to sit down and play them with her.  You don’t argue with Monique, at least you didn't then. 

Jamie and his drums...

Then came Valentine’s day, and we all had to wear red.  Junetta dashed off to the market and came back with a red T-shirt for me and I felt very much at home. 

All these years later, I still feel very close to all of you, even though most of the children I knew have moved on (some, sadly, heavenwards), but we now have the internet, Skype, Facebook; website and now your wonderful blog here; we can keep in touch as easily as if you were next door.  We don’t contact each other much, but when you’re friends you don’t have to. Those times I remember fondly, those children I celebrate always, and a school that stays with me because of the spirit and passion for the children they serve. 

Have a lovely year everyone. I’ll be thinking of you

Love,

Jamie
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