John A. Cumber Primary School has been the site for two of the Miles Ahead teams this week. Both the Community Projects team and Medical team have been helping the students and faculty on the outside and inside.

Whether it’s the United States or the Cayman Islands, schools often face the problem of overcrowded classrooms. At John A. Cumber, the Miles Ahead team is helping to alleviate their overcrowding problem with a classroom expansion. The renovation will include building 12 new classrooms, which will add 3,500 square feet of classroom space. The team is also creating a 40-ft mural that will serve as the backdrop for their school play this year. This project will save the local government $1.2 million.

Rolston Anglin, the Cayman Islands Government’s Minister of Education visited John A. Cumber with Pastor Miles to observe the volunteers’ efforts. Said Anglin, “It is of great value to the community, to the school, but more importantly to the Ministry of Education. This will allow us to do is forgo a project we would have to undertaken because a lot these classrooms are much smaller and were built for a time that we have completely overgrown…increased square footage will allow the government to forgo having to completely demolish this classroom block.

In addition to renovating the outside, the Medical team is helping the students on the students on the inside by doing health education. The San Diego contingent included a team of medical professionals who provided a series of health education seminars to more than 500 children, ages 5-11.

“Improving the quality of life for the Cayman people is at the heart of the medical team’s outreach,” said Joshua Kirby, an Emergency Medical Technician from the community of 4S Ranch, in San Diego

The medical team presented several seminars featuring information on diabetes prevention, diet, hypertension and healthy lifestyle choices. They chose these topics because data released by the Cayman Islands Health Services Authority (HSA) last September showed that childhood obesity is a growing problem in the Cayman Islands. In fact, the findings showed that one in every five children ages 11-14 are overweight.

Kirby said the seminars included a diabetes expert who presented blood glucose sticks, showed the John A. Cumber Primary School has been the site for two of the Miles Ahead teams this week. Both the Community Projects team and Medical team have been helping the students and faculty on the outside and inside.

With just two days until the festival, all of the Miles Ahead teams are gearing up for the historical two-day event.