by Lincoln DePradine
The family of a former St George’s Anglican Junior School (SGAJS) principal, Pearline Garraway, is honouring her contribution to the teaching profession by presenting the first scholarship in her name.
The family-run Pearline Garraway Education Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation, presented the EC$2,000 scholarship to Lexie Straker, a 20-year-old who is majoring in biology at St George’s University (SGU).
“Since I was a little girl, the sciences have always interested me,’’ said Straker, who plans on becoming a teacher.
The presentation, at the Ministry of Education conference room was attended by more than half dozen children and grandchildren – including lawyers and an SGU-trained paediatrician – of the late principal, as well as by family friend Dr Sheridan Cyrus.
Cyrus, a dentist resident in Canada, was visiting Grenada in part to finish setting up the infrastructure for a clinic on the compound of the Richmond Hill Prisons, where he’ll be offering free services to inmates.
Lance (Peter) Garraway, a Canada-based certified financial planner, said the idea of the foundation was discussed with his mother, who approved of it. While the foundation was registered in 2012, “there were a number of things that intervened, including her passing,’’ Garraway said in an interview.
Pearline Garraway, who retired as SGAJS principal in 1982, died in 2016. She was 93. Garraway began her teaching career months after Hurricane Janet struck Grenada in 1955. She travelled from Park Lane in St George’s to St David, where she held her first teaching job.
“Her story is that she used to get rides on the ‘Janet trucks’, going back and forth, before she got a job at St George’s Anglican Junior School,’’ Lance Garraway said.
The scholarship is “to honour her life’s work in teaching in Grenada,’’ he explained. “She wanted it primarily to be a scholarship for teachers and/or principals who are doing extra studies; and/or students who are studying towards becoming teachers.’’
“It’s a feeling of excitement and gratification to make the first scholarship presentation,” said Garraway, who is president of the foundation. “It’s a good feeling and everyone involved really wants to see it grow and become a larger scholarship or to have more scholarships,’’ he added.
Other members of the board of directors of the Pearline Garraway Education Foundation are Sharon Phillip, secretary/treasurer; Rosetta Brathwaite, herself a retired SGAJS principal; retired Canadian public servant Arlette Isaac; and lawyer Melissa Garraway.
Apart from teaching, Pearline Garraway also was a Brownie advisor to the Girl Guides Association of Grenada, and a pianist of St Vincent Anglican Church in Morne Jaloux.
