Children at the Nadine Andreas Residential Foster Home, Miss Nadine’s Pre-School and the Jack and Jill Nursery and Early Learning Centre will receive brand new books throughout the coming year, thanks to the generosity of the Camana Bay community.

Almost $1000 of Books & Books gift certificates were donated to the National Council of Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) after the equivalent in change was raised through the Camana Bay Christmas Give donation boxes, which were present in the shops in the Town Centre throughout December and early January. “We will use the certificates to buy birthday presents for our foster home children, rewards for good grades, educational gifts for our pre-school and nursery and for graduation presents,” explained NCVO Coordinator, Alta Bodden-Solomon. “We greatly appreciate Camana Bay and Books & Books’ efforts, which will help the NCVO throughout the coming year.” Books & Books has also given a discount on all books purchased from the Camana Bay store.

At a time of year when it’s easy to be swept away by shopping, socializing and overall indulging, Camana Bay took a step back to contemplate the humanitarian side of Christmas – and encouraged the community to get involved, too.

Through its first Christmas Give project, Camana Bay worked to build support for a number of local charities and organisations’ existing seasonal programmes. One local organisation, Cayman’s ARK, drove their annual Giving is Receiving project to great success, providing sponsored grocery bags for the public to fill with food and gifts for the many families who are struggling in Cayman. “This project focuses on the very serious issue of hunger locally,” said ARK member, Alison Lomax.

“We make every effort to ensure that we can make available foods and gifts to those that clearly need it during the holiday season.” The volunteers worked hard to ensure that every child received a gift and families received sufficient groceries, tailoring the shopping bags to each family’s individual needs.

The Discovery Centre in Camana Bay’s Town Centre acted as a drop off point for donations to the project. “We were delighted with the overwhelming response to our 2011 Giving is Receiving project,” said Lomax.

“ARK relies heavily on contributions from local organisations and we would like to thank Camana Bay for their continual support and use of The Discovery Centre for this year’s project.” Over the project’s five week course, ARK received over 1,400 shopping bags, which were delivered to over 250 families in Cayman.

The Discovery Centre also housed the Camana Bay Wish Tree, a Christmas tree decorated with suggested gift ideas for the public to purchase for children identified by the CAYS Foundation and Children & Family Services. Thanks to the public’s generosity and support, all wishes were fulfilled ensuring that each identified child received a gift on Christmas Day.

In addition to the above activities, Camana Bay helped a number of other charities and organisations including Feed our Future, Meals on Wheels and the Lions Club of Tropical Gardens.

“It was our pleasure and honour to lend support to local organisations to assist such families over the holiday period,” said Ken Hydes, Town Centre Manager at Camana Bay. “However, as we are all aware, the needs of many people within the local community are not just a seasonal issue. Camana Bay will be working to offer our continued support throughout the coming year.”