August 27, 2010

Haiti vocational school to commemorate New Brunswick RCMP officer

FREDERICTON

Fundraising efforts to build a vocational school in Haiti commemorating RCMP Sgt. Mark Gallagher were launched this week in his home province on New Brunswick.

A coalition called Friends of Mark Gallagher is leading the drive to raise money for the school, which will be named after the Woodstock-based officer who died in the Haiti earthquake.

Gallagher was killed in Port-au-Prince in January while conducting UN peacekeeping mission training.

The first major fundraising event for the school is a gala planned for Nov. 6 at the New Brunswick Community College in Woodstock.

Richard Blaquiere, a Woodstock teacher and co-chairman of the coalition, said the Sgt. Mark Gallagher Memorial Vocational School will be built in Riviere Froide, a small community near Port-au-Prince.

He visited the area in April and said the experience affected him deeply.

“The earthquake was devastating to the town of Riviere Froide, Blaquiere said, killing 144 children and four nuns at the joint primary and secondary school. A German company has agreed to rebuild that facility. He said the vocational school is a project that local nuns have wanted to develop for years.

Blaquiere said the school will make a difference in the lives of many Riviere Froide residents.

“It will house 15 classrooms with different programs, everything from electrical to construction to seamstress to computer to agriculture work.”

The school will be able to accommodate about 500 students. It’s expected to cost between $700,000 and $1 million to build, and Blaquiere said he hopes to see it up and running by 2012.

Canadian Press

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