While other banks were enjoying a lovely Monday off due to a US holiday on May 25th, staff from UBS decided to spend their day volunteering with the Kiwanis Club for the day! What better way to kick-start the week off than by rolling their sleeves up and putting in some extra time with the kids of our community!
The day started off at St. Ignatius Catholic School where UBS staff volunteers sat under the shade with groups of students ranging from reception to Year 4 reading books from the Kiwanis “Book Mobile” library. UBS volunteers along with Kiwanian Paul de Freitas encouraged children to select books that they would like to read or have read to them. Volunteer James Yonge said “It was great interacting with the kids and helping them develop their reading skills. I was most impressed with the level at which they were reading and inspired to spend more time reading with my child.” The steady flow of enthusiastic young readers was impressive thanks to the commendable staff and teachers who were so very accommodating and just as excited that UBS had decided to bank on reading! Principal Veronica Heffernan said “The children of St Ignatius Catholic School enjoyed the luxury to being read to, and reading to reading enthusiasts from UBS! The Bookmobile parked up, and opened up a whole range of books and volunteers for the morning. The children read to the volunteers who in turn read to them, all sharing a love of books and stories. We hope that UBS and their great staff will come again, perhaps a new chapter in school partnerships. Thank you UBS.” What a pleasure it was to see how fun and rewarding promoting literacy can be when we all take some time to work together!

After a morning filled with reading, UBS volunteers wanted more! Later in the afternoon, they made their way to Triple C School were they assisted teenage Key Clubbers with their “Key to STEM” event. A fun, educational and interactive event geared towards elementary students to promote Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. It was refreshing to have new volunteers dedicate time and guidance at a project organized by our Key Clubbers! Key Club Lieutenant Governor Beatriz Bueno Dorea said “It was incredibly rewarding to be able to provide an exciting event of STEM for the younger generations alongside great leaders.”
The Kiwanis Club was thrilled to work together with UBS on such a great initiative and look forward to partnering with their lovely staff on future projects! UBS event coordinator Jessica Deegenaars said “It was an absolute pleasure partnering with the Kiwanis Club of Grand Cayman for our very first UBS Volunteers day. Firstly, the Book Mobile impressed not only us, but the children and teachers at St Ignatius School. There was a buzz around the lovely shaded school yard as we interacted with children from prep right through to year four. And then the Key Club – wow! When the five clubs came together for Key to STEM event, we were amazed to learn that the program was student lead and that the 20 science experiments had been created by the students. It was refreshing to see so many students of different ages enthused and amused by educational fun. That being said, I’m not sure who had more fun; the students or the UBS employees? An excellent day spent with our younger community members.”
If you or your company would like to find out more about the Kiwanis Club of Grand Cayman and our current projects please visit our website www.kiwanis.ky or email [email protected] with any questions.