FREEPORT -- "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime". With this in mind, the Grand Bahama Shipyard (GBS) is gearing up for its 4th Annual Fishing Tournament. The tournaments help support local schools on the island.

Currently, work is being completed on one of the three schools that benefited from proceeds from last year's tournament - Bartlett Hill Primary School.

At Bartlett Hill Primary, where Gia Walker is the principal, the shipyard helped build, buy and assemble a new playground for the preschool; paint picnic tables; refurbish their tuck shop, including providing them with a new freezer; refurbish the existing playground; it donate 12 new basketballs, and it painted a new logo on the basketball court.

"Grand Bahama Shipyard has been a blessing to Bartlett Hill Primary over the last two years," said Walker. "Thanks to their generosity, children have water coolers at each grade level, modern playground equipment and benches for eating lunch and snacks. Our basketball teams have new balls and they have even enhanced our basketball court by painting our school mascot on it. They have also recently refurbished our kitchen area to make serving lunch and snacks to our students more simplified."

The shipyard's effort to make a difference in their lives was definitely noticed by faculty, staff and students of Bartlett Hill Primary. Walker commented: "We feel blessed to know that Grand Bahama Shipyard is partnering with us to enhance the growth and development of our children. We are sure that this positive donation will touch each and every child at Bartlett Hill Primary."

The shipyard's fishing tournament has been running for three years, with the fourth one to take place March 21 and 22.

Proceeds from the previous tournaments have benefited schools in East and West Grand Bahama. Additionally, the schools that the fishing tournaments have benefited, recently received a book donation thanks to GBS, Rotary International and Control Chemicals.

GBS Youth Benefit Fishing Tournament Director Ed Pavey said: "Mrs. Walker is such a joy to work with, and the children are phenomenal, very appreciative and well behaved too. The yard and those who support our tournaments really need to know what difference their contributions make - I get the luck of seeing the smiles each time I visit."

The tournament is expected to attract quite a number of competitors this year.

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