TORTOLA — Roots to Resilience, a paint-the-town beautification project conceived by former Deputy Premier Lorna Smith, got a boost from 17 passengers aboard Sir Richard Branson’s Resilient Lady cruise ship.
During a stop Sunday at the Cyril B. Romney Tortola Pier Park in Road Town the group joined other volunteers including students from Willard Wheatley Primary School, the Rotary Club, Roots to Resilience influencers and Unite BVI, cleaning and later painting walls in bright colors at East End-Long Look communities.
“We’ve completed eight walls between the East End and Long Look areas, as part of the Roots to Resilience program,” Smith told The Daily News. “I’m grateful to everybody who contributed, whether as service clubs, whether as students who needed community service hours or whether as persons living in the communities.”
Smith said was “especially elated to receive the support of 17 volunteers from the Resilient Lady, Virgin Cruises cruise ship.”
“We had half of them in Long Look and the other half in East End, helping us to complete this project in this area, where we have completed eight walls in both communities,” she said.
Cruise ship crew member and volunteer Daniel Ramashoo from South Africa said he was enjoying the painting.
“Last week we were in Barbados and we were cleaning up the sea,” he said. “Today, we are in the BVI painting. We get involved in local community projects around the various islands that the ship goes to.”
Smith thanked Kim Takeuchi and Rhianna Callwood of Unite BVI Foundation and Virgin Voyages for the assistance.
Smith said she’d like to see more people coming out and help beautify the island.
“Remember, beauty is by nature. Cleaning and beautification is by choice,” she said.
The project kicked off in early December on Queen Elizabeth II Park on Beef Island.
In April, volunteers will plant trees as several trees were damaged during the 2017 hurricanes and as recent as last year when Hurricane Ernesto damaged others.
Other projects to be executed across all four islands — Tortola, Anegada, Virgin Gorda and Jost VanDyke — will include the removal of derelict vehicles around them in partnership with the Waste Management Department, engaging senior residents, working with young people in home economics training and an art competition using recycled materials.
“It’s a territorywide project and we’re calling on everyone to come out and help us,” Smith said. “We’re happy that it’s a government supported project and we just need more hands and of course, we need more resources, but we believe that’s the easy part.”
