Malvern churches get $2.6m donation from late educator’s trust

WESTERN BUREAU:

St Elizabeth-based churches, the St Albans Anglican Church and the Bethlehem Moravian Church, are the joint beneficiaries of a J$2.6-million donation from the now-defunct Mavis Fraser-Davis Trust. The funds are to be used to assist students adversely affected by Hurricane Melissa.

The funds were handed over to the two churches on February 1, five years after the trust’s closure in 2021. The churches will each receive $1.3 million from the trust’s former board members.

The Mavis Fraser-Davis Trust was launched in 1998 in honour of the late Mavis Fraser-Davis, an educator who served the Malvern community and had close ties to both churches. The fund was started by Fraser-Davis’ brother, the now-deceased Reverend James Oswald Thorbourne.

Paul Thorbourne, grandnephew of Fraser-Davis and a former member of the trust’s board, told The Gleaner that he was satisfied that the funds, which were left over from past fundraising efforts between 2015 and 2018, could be used to assist the two churches’ students.

“I feel very satisfied that the trust, at this time, could really assist these students and their families, which is what the trust was set up to do, in terms of assisting needy students in the St Elizabeth area, and especially at this time, after the ravage of Hurricane Melissa. I feel very good that the trust was able to come through to assist them at this time,” said Thorbourne.

“The trust was dissolved a few years back because the board members had left, and we could not go down to St Elizabeth as we would like. There was a balance of funds that was left in the trust’s account, and we had been debating how best to deal with it,” explained Thorbourne. “But after Hurricane Melissa came and did her damage, we said that maybe the Lord would wish us to just give the balance of the funds to the two churches which we have been trying to assist.”

The St Albans Anglican Church’s portion of the funds will go towards supporting students of the affiliated St Albans Primary School. It will also go towards the creation of a scholarship in honour of Fraser-Davis.

Meanwhile, the Bethlehem Moravian Church’s portion will be used to support its youth development programme in the area. The church has also named a nearby primary school building in honour of Fraser-Davis.

Reverend Sacha Lambert, the minister of the Bethlehem Moravian Church, expressed gratitude for the trust’s consideration towards her church and its youth ministry.

“We are very grateful and happy for the consideration, because it has been a long partnership we have had with the Mavis Fraser-Davis Trust. This donation will significantly advance our youth work in our church, because it is quite a number of students and other community children that come to our Sunday school who will benefit from this,” said Lambert.

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com