A take a look at Coconut Bay’s new renovations & charitable efforts

Forward of its nineteenth anniversary, Saint Lucia’s Coconut Bay Seaside Resort & Spa has introduced a brand new charitable effort that may see it undertake the ABC Funhouse College — a neighborhood pre faculty academic centre.

Spearheaded by its charitable basis, CocoLand Cares, the 4 yr initiative will see the remodelling of the classroom for the subsequent class of pre schoolers beginning in Sept. 2024 with new furnishings and flooring, in addition to a toilet refresh, exterior enhancements, new state-of-the- artwork classroom tools and instruments, and new playground furnishings.

A phased method

“Our adoption of the school will be a four-year project and will comprise of several phases starting this summer. The phase will include a complete remodel of the one and two year old learning areas,” stated Gemma Edwin, finance supervisor for Coconut Bay Seaside Resort & Spa. “Students entering in the fall of 2024 will be the first to enjoy the new facility.”

An official MOU was signed between by resort’s proprietor Gary “Butch” Hendrickson and a consultant for the varsity.

“My mission is to start them as early as possible. A former minister of education in Jamaica once said start them right and then they’ll be bright. And that’s our goal here at Coconut Bay,” stated Hendrickson.

For years, Cocoland Cares has distributed packages of studying supplies to pre-schools throughout the island.

“As the mother of a child attending the ABC Funhouse and the manager of the kid’s club that welcomes our young international guests, I willingly serve on the CocoLand Cares committee and I treasure the idea that my contributions will influence the development of young minds including my own daughter,” added Mia Chin, gross sales and visitor relations supervisor at Coconut Bay Seaside Resort & Spa.

Coco and Loco, the resort’s mascot coconuts, have been additionally readily available for the announcement, in addition to college students from the ABC Funhouse College, who sang the nationwide anthem previous to the press convention.

A brand new look coming quickly

Similtaneously the varsity is being reworked, adjustments are additionally underway on the resort, which is dwelling to the family-friendly Splash wing and the adults-only Concord wing.

All 250 rooms and Junior suites are being upgraded to incorporate new furnishings, flooring and spacious toilet enhancements.

“Our newest addition is ongoing now. It’s a two-year project where we are renovating all 250 rooms across the resort,” stated Natalia Greene, VP of gross sales and advertising for Coconut Bay Seaside Resort & Spa. “That’ll be a pretty hefty investment.”

9 rooms have already been reworked and quite a lot of work is predicted to be finished in the course of the resort’s annual closure in September.

One of many latest recent areas is Peter John’s Lounge, a bar that’s identified for its massive assortment of Saint Lucian Caribbean rums, which has a brand new look with new furnishings and equipment, art work and tables produced from Chairman’s Reserve rum barrels.

Notably, there at the moment are six oceanfront spa cabanas on the beachfront space for outside spa remedies. There have been a number of cabanas beforehand however now they’ve doubled.

A bridal suite was additionally not too long ago added for wedding ceremony events to have the ability to get collectively as a bunch. Notably, Greene says they are going to solely do one wedding ceremony per day.

Apparently, the property was once a Membership Med earlier than re-opening as an independently run enterprise in 2005. 

“I like to tell people that anyone who knew it as a Club Med does not know us as it stands now. It didn’t have a waterpark. When our owner bought it, he added a 15 ft seating area to each of the rooms, which gave us to the opportunity to have balconies on the upper floors and a seating area for the ground level rooms,” says Greene. “In addition to that, over the last 10 years we’ve put a significant amount of money into the resort and into products because we close every September. In those closures we’ve added pools, we’ve added restaurants, we’ve added bars, we’ve added a new wedding venue, a bridal suite.”

Making a splash in the neighborhood

CocoLand Cares and Coconut Bay Seaside Resort & Spa have additionally donated a lot wanted tools to the pediatric wing on the native hospital together with toddler incubators and a cardiac monitor.

Now, the subsequent part contains helping with upgrades to the emergency room services at Saint Jude’s Hospital.

“As the largest hospitality entity in the south, it is vital that we support the only health care facility that we have available to our staff and our guests,” stated Chin. “Our next pledge beginning next month is assistance in refreshing and improving the emergency room facilities to include new paint, new wall paneling, new tracks and new curtains in the waiting areas.”

Apparently, proceeds from the resort’s weekly lazy river rubber duck race additionally present common donations for provides which can be requested and wanted.

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