Foundation aims to educate on marine attractions

This afternoon, a foundation in the name of the late Hugh Parkey was officially launched during ceremonies at the Belize Biltmore Plaza. Following the veteran dive operator’s passing last July, his family and employees wanted to do something in his memory. According to Hugh’s widow, Teresa Parkey, the foundation, which will operate independently in Belize, will expose primary and secondary school students to Belize’s extraordinary marine life. The hope is that they will find the nation’s underwater world as fascinating as her late husband did.

Teresa Parkey, Director, Hugh Parkey Foundation

what happened was after he passed away in July we had a number of people that wanted–especially friends and customers and things like that from the past–that wanted to do something in his memory and in his name. And the family and the staff of Dive Connections, we got together and made the decision that we wanted to set up a foundation to expose young people to the underwater world. Because for Hugh, it was always a gratifying experience every time he went diving. So the more young people we can expose that to and have them take an ownership and stewardship of that, we feel like that’s important.”

Jacqueline Woods

“How will it work?”

Teresa Parkey

“We’ve been able to acquire finances and funding through various donators and what we’ve done is we’re working in partnership with Oceans for Youth Foundation in the United States and video clips have been produced by Jean-Michel Cousteau for this foundation. We will be able to use those for primary school levels and secondary schools levels. We’ll be able to write study guides for the students and teacher outlines so that it can be integrated into regular science curriculum. And then our intention is that we we’ll be providing field trips, whether it’s on the weekend, in the summer months, for all the young people. We’re gonna try to start with three primary school levels and two secondary school levels. And they’ll all have the opportunities to see the cayes, see the reef, to see what’s down there.”

If you would like more information about the Hugh Parkey Foundation, you can call the office at telephone numbers 223-4526 or 223-5086.