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St Anthony’s College First Wheelathon—ride, walk, run and fun day—took place on July 6 at the Queen’s Park Savannah. It was a day of support toward the construction of a ramp at the school to assist special needs students like 16-year-old Giovanni Renwick in accessing their classes.
Approximately 50 people from the communities of St Dominic’s RC Church Morvant parish, where Giovanni and his family attend Mass, and his school came out to support. Others who could not attend gave donations.
Giovanni is moving up to Form Four in September and has chosen Additional Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics, Technical Drawing and Spanish for the Caribbean Examination Council O-level Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate. In the lower forms, he had to get assistance to access the Chemistry lab and classrooms for Technical Drawing and Information Technology.
“I have done the Chemistry and the Physics upstairs already, but it was tough,” Giovanni told The Catholic News in an interview. Giovanni has an interest in engineering but isn’t sure which career field he will pursue, as he is “still learning about the types of engineering, but it’s one of those that make the plans for what we are going to engineer.”
His mother Shirnell Renwick said: “The reason why we’re doing the ramp is so that he would have access to the Science block because that’s what he wants to get into to do. So, Fr Dwight [Merrick] got the idea of trying his best to help Giovanni by doing a ramp to access that block as well, we know it would help other children to have access to do the subjects they want to do.”
Fr Merrick knew Giovanni as an “energetic” child. By the time he left the parish, the family’s challenges with his education “kicked in”. He said, “With the primary school, Shirnell would talk to me about it, how difficult it is. The schools need to have ramps, although even for the lowest floor, you still need ramps to get onto that floor, and that just wasn’t happening.”
Fr Dwight Merrick speaks to The Catholic News with Giovanni sitting next to him
When Fr Merrick was doing a university course, he had to interview someone with a disability and thought of Giovanni. In speaking to the teen, he found out about the present difficulties.
“Even to do Forms One, Two, and Three, they brought the classes down to him at St Anthony’s, but Form Four and sciences meant upstairs labs.” Fr Merrick said though he had not deliberated, his first response was, “if you want to do sciences and you have the ability, it is up to us to make that happen. You should not have to do something else because you can’t get upstairs.”
By January, conversations got underway with Giovanni’s parents and the school principal, and an official on the Board of the Catholic Education Board of Management.
Fr Merrick voiced concern about the fate of other students in wheelchairs, “because they’re not in schools, and they are not all intellectually challenged at all”. He added, “We really are doing such a disservice to our special children and people who have disabilities”.
The idea to raise funds with a wheelathon came to him. The target is $125,000 for materials for the ramp, although this is “a drop in the bucket” as labour cost has not been estimated. The hope is that a willing contractor will assist pro bono. He put his trust in God to see the project materialise.
Principal of St Anthony’s Maurice Inniss said the participation in the wheelathon was moderate.
“It wasn’t a big crowd, but I guess people would have given towards the cause. But it’s a nice turnout. Family members from his side, a few teachers and their family members from the school. I think it was a nice walk, a good day for a walk as well. It was pretty good.”
Inniss said Giovanni was the first student the school had in a wheelchair but not the first with a disability; there was a boy with a visual impairment.
Some “mini ramps” were installed for Giovanni to access the walkways, and a cubicle in the boys’ toilet. Inniss said, “Hopefully with this ramp, more disabled children or more children in wheelchairs and so on could be accommodated at St Anthony’s”.
Work will begin on the ramp as funding allows. “We need for him to be able to come to the second floor. So, one way or the other, I think we need to get this done by September,” Inniss said.
Members of the public are invited to support the cause to make classes accessible for Giovanni and others in the future. For more information, contact Fr Merrick 786-7596, Carl Renwick 274-7079, or St Anthony’s College 637-6744.
