Left: Mayor of Portmore George Lee (right) hands over a cheque for $30,000 to scholarship winner Darian Reid (centre), as his wife Mrs. Lee, looks on, during a handing-over ceremony at the Portmore Municipal Council office on September 1. Reid, formerly of Bridgeport Primary, passed his Grade Six Achievement Test for Ardenne High School in St. Andrew. Right: Mayor George Lee (right) hands over a cheque for $40,000 to scholarship winner Rushane Murray. Murray will be pursuing a business course at the Excelsior Community College in St. Andrew. - Photos by Anthony Minott

PORTMORE, St. Catherine:

Mayor of Portmore, George Lee, handed over $250,000 worth of cheques to needy students of the 'Sunshine City', at the municipality office in Portmore on last Saturday.

The cheques will go towards paying school and tuition fees and for the buying of books, lunch money allowances and bus fares.

Darian Reid, formerly of Bridgeport Primary School, received a scholarship for $20,000, which he will receive for four consecutive years. Another scholarship recipient absent, will pocket a cheque for $30,000 over four years, while Rushane Murray, formerly of Jamaica College, received a one-off assistance cheque of $40,000, which is half of his tuition fee to pursue a business course at the Excelsior Community College.

Mayor Lee, in his address to the students and their parents, told the recipients they should put the assistance they are getting to good use.

"Education is the passport out of poverty ... learn your book and try and get on with education," he said.

Students who received assistance will come under the scrutiny of the coordinators of the Mayor's Fund, named 'Friends of Portmore'.

There are certain basic requirements to continue in the programme and these include regular attendance at school, satisfactory academic performance and the maintenance of a certain level of discipline.

Mayor Lee put on a charity dinner earlier this year to raise money for the mayor's fund.

- Anthony Minott