We have awarded competitive, all-inclusive scholarships to 30 students from Treasure Beach, some of whom are now in their sixth year of studies in rigorous seven-year programs in the best schools in Jamaica. We are extremely proud of each of our scholarship students because they continue to excel.

And, since 2004, we have done many other things for the Treasure Beach community. We have obtained first-class laptops for Sandy Bank Primary School—and have paid for software for those computers. We have facilitated the addition of bookcases, books, and other learning materials for the schools. We have coordinated annual one-week trips for University of Virginia students to assist in the local schools since 2005; this means nearly 200 university students have each contributed a week of their time in the schools helping the students and faculty. We even provided building materials to help well more than 100 residents rebuild after two devastating hurricanes: Ivan in 2004 and Dean in 2007, concentrating on homes where the young and the elderly lived.

Nonetheless, for a number of reasons, we have made the very difficult decision to begin to wind down our operations.

We feel a very strong obligation to honor our commitment to our current students. Therefore, instead of awarding additional scholarships this coming June, we plan to do our best to continue to support those students already in the scholarship program—hopefully for several more years.

And, we are asking for your assistance and understanding.

What can you do to help us support the scholarship students?

•We will have another villa raffle in 2012—and urge you to participate. This will be the biggest and best villa raffle we have ever had.

•Your financial donations throughout the year are essential because this will give us even more funds to support the scholarship students. You may donate by going to www.TreasureBeachFoundation.org.

We thank all our donors and members of the Treasure Beach community for your continued support.

Thank you for caring. Thank you for making a difference.

Not very good news for Treasure Beach. Thanks for all you have done & continue to do for this community.

Sorry to hear this Mr. & Mrs. Kennedy. But Greatful for all that you have done! You were sent from god to our little community. But as the saying goes all good things has to come to an end.
May god bless you both!!

Too bad to hear of the winding down. There are no words to describe the great benefits that Ms. Kennedy and the Foundation have provided to the citizens of Treasure Beach. Hence no words to describe our debt and gratitude.

Very sad news.

So sorry to hear that TBF will be winding down operations. I hope you'll be able to continue supporting the existing scholarship winners. And I'll do my part to make that possible by making a donation today. Maybe saying that will inspire some other TB visitors/lovers to do the same. I don't know if I can afford to visit this year, but I can afford to make a small gift to the Foundation.

Thank you for your hard work in support of TB's young people, Karen!

I am sorry to hear of this. I'm sure it must have been a tough decision and the youngsters in Treasure Beach will be the losers. Great pity.

Diana from JET

Miserable news for Treasure Beach though we need to be thankful for all that has been done. This foundation has done very much over the years and has always done everything very fairly for the good of the community. God Bless You.

Doesn't Jason from Jakes contribute lots of money to this? I hear he is wonderful at contributing lots of money to needed things in TB. He is very generous and puts others before himself

Miss Janet, the scholarship program is run by Treasure Beach Foundation. This is supported by our donors and members of the community who donate accommodations and services for our annual villa raffle. Jason has not contributed any money to this.

The Scholarship program and many other things for Sandy Bank are totally the work of Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy.

There should be more Karen and Peter Kennedy's in the world....thank you for all that you have done for this community. Perhaps there will be someone out there who will step forward to donate their time and energy to helping the most deserving of students like you have. All of us who have donated money to the Treasure Beach Foundation would continue to do so should there be another scholarship program in the future. Karen, you have earned your rest!

Mr and Mrs Kennedy has contributed tremendously to the community, especially to education, the Vances has now join in to help in educating the people, and also to help improve the lives of some of the less fortunate, really God blessed people.

Jason/Jakes/BREDS have nothing whatsoever to do with the scholarship program. {edited by TB.Net}

Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy, I am very sorry to hear that you are going to stop giving out the scholarships. I am also raising funds for charity. I am trying to get as many people to donate as possible for the building of the Sandy Bank Primary School Auditorium. If you or anyone else would like to donate I would greatly appreciate it. To get in contact with me go to www.wix.com/koriann6/charity-site
This information is all correctly inputted.

Jason did not contribute to the scholarships. You are mistaken, Miss Janet.

I think the misunderstanding is Karen Kennedy's group is called The Treasure Beach Foundation. Jason Henzell's group is called BREDS, Treasure Beach Foundation.

Both groups have been very active in providing services and support to the community.

The names are similar and that might have led to the confusion.

Jason does a many things for the community but this is not one of the things he does. Credit should go where it is due. People should not always assume when good things are done they are the work of one man. Many people help out in Treasure Beach. The scholarships were the work of the Kennedys.

What is going to happen to the big computer lab that the Kennedys were going to put into Sandy Bank Primary? I heard it was going to happen close to a year ago and now what will be come of it?

I just love Jason and his selfless contributions. What a nice man.If everyone was like him this world would be a much better place.

It is hard to express the shock I feel seeing this news. Treasure Beach Foundation has done an admirable job over the years to assist the community of Treasure Beach whether it be for emergencies like major hurricanes or ongoing needs to improve learning opportunities for the students. These are people who do not look for publicity or their photos in the newspaper; they merely have gone about their jobs working directly with the people of Treasure Beach. There has never been a hint of favoritism about who receives scholarships or other benefits. You are owed a debt of gratitude from the entire community.

I am a bit upset credit for the scholarships is assumed by some to belong to Jason and BREDS. There are many other people in Treasure Beach who do wonderful things for the community year after year. The Kennedys are one of them.

Thank you to Mrs. Kennedy for what you have done for the children.

What is sad is Treasure Beach needs all sorts of assistance. BREDS is providing for the sports park. The TBWG provides for adult computer classes, summer programs for children and occasional health clinics. Treasure Beach Foundation was supporting Sandy Bank primary and its graduates and had hoped to install a large computer lab for the use of all students. We cannot fail our children because they are our future. I am sad they will be winding down operations in Treasure Beach because we needed more for the children, not less. I will say they were the only group I know that did not live in Jamaica but cared about the residents like they were family.

Education is the most important thing we can do for our community. I have seen way too many students not going to school because their family could not even afford school lunches, uniforms, books and shoes. What will become of these young people?

What will happen with the UVA students who come to T/B every March through Treasure Beach Foundation?

Twenty University of Virginia students will be coming to Treasure Beach from March 3-10 -- which is less than a month from now. They will be assisting both at Sandy Bank Primary and Sandy Bank Basic Schools. We expect groups from the U of Virginia (UVA) to continue to come to Treasure Beach annually to work with the children in school. I am coordinating the trip again this year. In the future, Rebecca from Treasure Tours will be coordinating the annual UVA trips.

There is an article in the New York Times today that says there is a growing difference in achievement and test scores between children from families who make good money compared to children from families with less money. The Treasure Beach students need all the support we can give them in the way of learning materials, books and computers. This scholarship program was a wonderful way to give the top students special opportunities. Is there a way these opportunities could be extended to all the students in the school? I am thinking of a program that might give books to students to take home and keep. I am thinking of computer literacy classes for all students. There must be more ideas out there.

If this program of giving books could start at the basic school level that could be very helpful.

I want to thank Treasure Beach Foundation and the Kennedys for all they have done. I cannot imagine all the time they have put into doing things for the community.

Thanks to Treasure Beach Foundation for all that you have done.Thank you Karen and Peter for giving so much to the community of Treasure Beach.You have been doing this for over twenty-five years.You have made tremendous sacrifices for our children and I honour you for this. I would have really love if the present batch of Grade Six students were given the opportunity to get a scholarship even for an year. They were really looking forward to this.

We appreciate your thanks, Miss Veron.

We also understand the disappointment.

It proved impossible to do all we had hoped for the Treasure Beach community, but we have done our best over the years.

After numerous meetings, we determined our primary obligation was to try to meet the commitments to the numerous scholarship students already in the program. This was a difficult decision, and it was not made lightly.

Karen and Peter,

I know how difficult it was for you to make the decision to wind down operations and I know that you did everything in your power to keep it going as long as you could. It is nice to read all the supportive messages of gratitude. Your Jamaican family obviously loves you.

Karen Kennedy would most probably prefer I didn’t post my feelings about Treasure Beach Foundation ceasing operations.

I know her though I can’t say I am a close friend. I know how serious she has been about helping people in Treasure Beach; the children were always the most important. She has confided things to me over the years so what I am saying is the truth, and I am not breaking any confidences.

When she started the scholarship program there was not enough money in the bank to honor the commitments. She was able to raise the money, but if she didn’t I know she would have taken it out of her own savings instead of disappointing the students. When money was due for the students it was always there on time. I am guessing she has worked about 15 hours a week since 2004 to raise money and to administer the program and she has never taken one cent for her work. She asks every one of her friends and relatives for donations. Peter Kennedy always asks for donations from people who are guests at their rental villas. They almost always donate a villa to raise money for the raffle.

She is doing this because she loves the people of Treasure Beach. She is not a saint. People who know her know she speaks her mind even when what she says might not be popular. She does what she does because it brings her joy and she considers this a great trade for her time.

I am saying all this for one reason. It is my opinion the people of Treasure Beach sometimes take things for granted. I read this site almost every day and I rarely have seen Treasure Beach Foundation thanked by the teachers or the principal. I have never seen a thank you from the school board. I know these are not unkind people but I wonder if they understand the sacrifices people make to help until things are gone. Some appreciation goes a long way.

On behalf of the Sandy Bank Primary School and the Treasure Beach community, I wish to express gratitude to the Treasure Beach Foundation for making such an invaluable contribution to the educational development of our students. I must make special mention of Karen and Peter Kennedy who made this scholarship programme a reality. Karen and her fellow board members have worked relentlessly over the past six years to sustain this programme and for this we are grateful. Unfortunately, the present Grade Six students doing the GSAT examination will not benefit but we are hoping that some good samaritan will come along and open a similar door for them. Karen and Peter, you have impacted on our lives here in Treasure Beach in so many ways and have helped to transform the lives of many in a positive way. To the donors, we highly appreciate your generosity and thoughtfulness and I implore you to continue supporting the foundation so that there can be continuity for the present scholarship recipients.

Not to put down a lovely thank you from the principal, but is this a true coincidence the thanks comes coupled with someone writing how infrequently such thanks is expressed. While I am in my wondering mode, I am wondering if it is possible to say thanks without mentioning the extra gift you want or mix it with some amount of disappointment.

"Dear Grandmother, thanks very much for the lovely dress. I wish someone would give me some pretty shoes to match it".

Wondering, when she wrote her thank you note the posting from Appreciation was still in the queue so Miss Zane had no idea it existed.

In other words, it was just a coincidence.

-TBNet

I am certainly surprised that one would really think its via one medium through which gratitude is expressed, and that is treasure beach.net.The school has openly shown its appreciation to Mr. and Mrs Kennedy by having a thank you function at the school at which time a plaque was presented to them and I have thanked them ever so often whether via telephone, personally or at all the meetings we have had and also on treasure beach.net. Would you like us to thank them everyday or is it that you are more knowledgeable about this than I am as you seem to indicate? Secondly the posting from appreciation wasn't even in the thread when I sent mine. Please be more understanding, I wish my students well and I am always grateful to anyone who has contributed to the school.

No matter why the thank you letter from Miss Zane was written, it was very lovely and heartfelt and expresses the appreciation of the community about what Treasure Beach Foundation has done for the students.

To 'Appreciation' i am sure that the staff and school board appreciate the sacrifices of Treasure Beach Foundation. I saw on TBNet where the school recently honoured Peter and Karen at the school for their contribution.How comes you did not post a commendation to the school. TBNet is not the only avenue by which people express their feelings to others.It is so bad when we use this forum to critisize others. No wonder some persons do not want to be a part of the conversation.

Good heavens critics like wondering, what's wrong with some of you. Pretty soon plenty people going to stop posting or going on this website. Give the people a break. As a past student and parent of Sandy Bank School I know Miss Zane have good intension and want the best for her students

I admit I am finding all this a bit embarrassing. Whoever started the discussion about thanks, I appreciate your sentiments. However, as good as your intentions are, you do not have the full story.

To all readers of TB.net: Please know that both Miss Zane and her predecessor, Mrs. Moxam, have always gone out of their way to thank me and all the others concerned with Treasure Beach Foundation. Each and every teacher at Sandy Bank has done the same.

Please understand that Treasure Beach Foundation is doing our utmost to be able to continue the support to the scholarship students for nearly another 2-1/2 years. This will be possible, assuming the 2012 villa raffle is as excellent as we are predicting.

Even when all our funds are gone, I will continue to support the school by encouraging people to donate learning materials and assist in any way they can.

To add to the chorus of voices here, TBNet is certainly not the only place people communicate with each other about issue in the community.

While we have the obligation to post all messages that are within the guidelines, there are certain ones which make us cringe when we hit the Approve button. We sure wish people would think more before they post here.

Miss Zane is very appreciative and thankfull for all the help she receive, she has her students at heart and only wants the best for them.

Am glad this mis-understanding is over. It distracted from the work the Treasure Beach Foundation does.

I have been blessed to receive a scholarship from Treasure Beach Foundation for several years now. I am doing my best to live up to their standards to keep my scholarship and make my family proud of my accomplishments. This scholarship has taken away financial worries for my parents and I am indebted to Treasure Beach Foundation so my parents do not have to be concerned about how to send me to school and pay for all the school expenses.

Isn't it time for the grades to come out? It is so good to know how the scholarship students are doing. I don't know any of them but reading their words and seeing their grades makes it feel very real to me, sort of like I do know them.

I also want to say I will be doing my little contribution to help these students keep going.

Thank you Karen and Peter for all your hard work you did to make the scholarship program so successful for so long. I understand the agony you went through in coming to your decision. You both have done so much for the Treasure Beach community and the scholarship program will be sorely missed. Knowing you both I also know you will continue supporting the community in so many other ways. Your love for the people of Treasure Beach will always be there and remembered. I wish there was someone with your dedication and love to take over to keep the children inspired. Thank you, thank you thank you! xoxo

Thank-you to Mrs. Kennedy for the many years of hard work to help the children of Treasure Beach. It is much appreciated.

The contribution that Karen Kennedy and the Treasure Beach Foundation made (and continue to make) to advancing the interests of the children of this community will long outlive the scholarship programme itself.

Generations from now the children and grandchildren of the scholarship recipients will continue to enjoy the benefits reaped from the education that the scholarship generation achieved.

I have long maintained that the generosity of those who contribute to the scholarship programme should never be taken for granted. There are American children who are as needy or even more needy than some of our own and therefore the work of the Foundation is all the more remarkable.

Best wishes to Karen and Peter Kennedy, their colleagues on the Foundation and the many contributors to the programme.

We sincerely appreciate all the thanks for what Treasure Beach Foundation has done and shall continue to do for the scholarship students. Not only have there been wonderful postings here, I have received numerous heartfelt e-mails.

As I have said, with continuing donations and with excellent participation in the 2012 villa raffle, we hope to support the scholarship students for another 2-1/2 years. If you have it in your heart to make a donation, even a very small one, please go to www.TreasureBeachFoundation.org.

Someone asked about the students' grades. I have gotten some of them via e-mail, and others are being sent by regular mail. Many of our students are scoring extremely high, and we are very proud of them. When we have received enough report cards, I will be posting some of the results.