Benefit Concert for Stann Creek Ecumenical This Weekend
There are currently one thousand students attending the Ecumenical High School in Dangriga in the south. With the school reaching its maximum student capacity and bursting at its seams, there is a need for additional classrooms to accommodate the growing number of students. And so the institution is organizing a benefit concert this weekend in Dangriga to raise much needed funds for the construction of a four-classroom building on its compound. With the assistance of Barbara Noralez and her team in the south, the concert with feature Into the Light Ministries from the U.S. David Lewis, his wife, Marian and their daughter will take the stage with inspirational messages and singing performances during the concert. News Five spoke today with David and Marian about what is in store for those attending the concert since David is a former member and vocalist with the popular group Atlantic Star. Principal of Ecumenical, Doctor Jeremy Cayetano, also spoke about the fundraiser.
Jeremy Cayetano
Dr. Jeremy Cayetano, Principal, Ecumenical High School
“We are so grateful that David and Maryann have come all the way from the States to share with us and to do this concert on behalf of Ecumenical High School and Zion Adventist College. You know that David was formerly of Atlantic Star and now they have the Into the Light Ministries and they are going to bring some of what they used to do and what they are doing now in order to benefit us and our students. We have started on building a four-classroom building. We’ve started already and we are fundraising towards that and they have actually come to help us to get that project going. So we are really grateful to them.”
Marian Lewis, Into the Light Ministries
“We understand that there is a great need of expansion of classrooms and we just want to be a part of it and it would just be a blessing. We are going to be singing, we are going to be giving some testimony and talking to people about what our old lives are about, what our new lives are about. We just want to inspire and encourage people.”
David & Marian Lewis
David Lewis, Into the Light Ministries
“Yeah, they’ll be coming out to see a celebration of new life. I left the music industry in 1994; I was a part of the group Atlantic Star and my wife was a high fashion model for the Ford Agency. And we left around 1994 and it took us a couple years to just figure out what God wanted us to do. He just put us on hold, he said I got great work for you to do, but I just gotta reprogram you all. So we just wanted for two years and after that God sent us out to tell our story and let people know that although people think that it is a great thing to be a recording artist and movie stars and all these other things; there is something even better and that is a life with him.”
Marian Lewis
“And the music brings all of that out. So we are going to have a good time, it is going to be an up time, it is going to be a thought-provoking time; searching your heart. But it is going to be really good.”
Dr. Jeremy Cayetano
“We continue to maintain our academic standard and yes…oh we are the national battle of the drums champions. We are quite proud of what we do outside the academics and we are very proud of what we do in the academics as well. All we want is for our students to be comfortable and for us to have the facilities that we need to be comfortable.”
The concert starts at seven-thirty p.m. at Blue Marlin Lawn in Dangriga. Student tickets are selling at ten dollars and the adult ticket is thirty dollars for the show on Saturday. On Sunday an encore presentation will be held, but at the school compound, which is primarily for the students.
