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What an amazing summer this has been! We have been so busy, that it is only now at the end of it all that I have the opportunity to post all that God has done through our summer teams.
Firstly, the summer has been packed with teams. It was so full in fact that God knew we’d need help and gave us an intern, Cody. Cody has been here before but this has been the first official intern we’ve had at WHS for the summer, and he did an excellent job.
Repeatedly, Ms. Gibson would cautiously approach me and ask, “Don’t you think you’ve bitten off more than you can chew,” in regards to all the projects planned. I certainly agree that it was a very aggressive plan to renovate all that we did. But God has been faithful to us month after month, and team after team has seen completion of only that which He could produce through the cooperation of His church working together.
The summer began with the interior finishing of our new cottage that was structurally erected last summer. The teams began with the interior walls and ended the summer with installing the bunk beds and all the finishing touches for installing and painting everything down to the trim.
The largest project was the complete renovation of the girls dorm. It had been over a decade since the last major work was done in the dorm, and then it was only to the roof and rafters. This year we completely gutted the entire 1st floor, and now everything you can point your finger at is brand new, from the bunks and fans to the stairs and walls. Even the electrical and plumbing has been either upgraded or replaced/repaired.
Another major project for the school was the complete upgrade of all the bathrooms facilities including new sinks faucets, toilets, and stalls. With help from venders in the US we had shipped over 20+ new toilets all with state of the line economy flush technology. Additionally, we made the investment in the polyethylene compressed hard-plastic bathroom dividers, the same quality you’d find at any modern airport or stadium bathroom. We could have opted for the cheaper particle board, but in this climate, that would have only given us 10 years with all our humidity; these heavy duty plastic ones will last the lifetime of the school.
One of the other major projects from the summer was the complete gutting a renovation of our snack shop. We attempted this 5 years ago and it worked up to a point, but to accommodate a vision for expanding the school requires a better solution for lunch. Now the snack shop has effectively doubled its capacity for serving the children, thereby cutting the lunch “wait-time” in half. It hs new
Though the teams didn’t do too much of the installation, most of it was done by Ryan Yates, we used the money the teams donated to purchase the first ever “Research Lab” with 20 brand new computers all wirelessly internet connected on a stand alone high speed filtered cable line. This facility replaces our old Library which we renovated back into a classroom last year. Although other schools have computer labs, I don’t know of any other location on Eleuthera that can boast of this kind of computer capability.
There are many other accomplishments this summer brought to Windermere, but the last I’ll mention here is the installation of our first integrated form of renewable energy in a dual solar array with a 6000 watt capacity. The solar power is run through 2 transfer switches, 1 in the snack shop and 1 in the cafeteria, such that we can run all refrigerators and deep freezers, along with lights and fans, all completely off grid.
Along with all the ministry accomplished by our summer teams, they have helped with so many other repairs and new enhancements from new lights, new decks on the workshop and cottage, new solar motion lights, new cabana, new picnic tables, new dorm doors, and the list goes on and on. Did we bite off more than we could chew… maybe, but God did a miracle as He does every year in continue to grow this school for the next generation to receive a quality education in a Christian environment.