Rusea’s High marks 250 years with year-long celebrations, $250m fundraising drive

HANOVER, Jamaica — With a rich heritage dating back to the 18th century, Rusea’s High School — the fourth-oldest continuously operating high school in Jamaica — is rolling out the red carpet for a landmark celebration. The institution officially launched its 250th-anniversary calendar of activities, which sets the stage for a year-long series of events honouring its enduring legacy while mapping out an ambitious future for generations of students to come. “Martin Rusea in 1764 decided that he's gonna put in his will to build a school in Hanover, and I'm sure when he did that, he never knew that 250 years later, we would be benefiting from that legacy,” stated public relations officer, fundraising committee chair and co-chair of the Rusea’s 250th Anniversary Steering Committee, Nicole Houghton. “We are taking the baton and passing it down. And that is the foundation of our legacy project, an auditorium. Something that will survive years. I'm sure if properly built, our grandchildren will also be beneficiaries of that facility. So, in the midst of all that we're doing now is to have at least one legacy project that generations after us can benefit [from],” added Haughton. Haughton was providing a brief during an interview with Observer Online following a media launch for the year-long celebration on Monday. This was held at the Grand Palladium Resort located at Point in the parish. Held under the theme “Honouring the Past, Celebrating the Present, and Inspiring the Future”, the milestone year promises a blend of reflection, community engagement and major development projects aimed at transforming the institution, which currently operates across two campuses. The year-long celebration is slated to feature several high-profile gatherings designed to draw alumni, known affectionately as Ruseans, back home to Hanover. The festivities will begin on January 4th with an ecumenical service, where organisers and supporters will join students for an extended devotion of gratitude. This will be followed by an official civic ceremony on January 8th to formally inaugurate the milestone. Beginning in February, a bimonthly lecture series will run through December, kicking off with an exploration of the life and legacy of the school’s historic benefactor, Martin Rusea. The excitement will peak during Reunion Week, scheduled for July 21st to July 25th, which will feature the Grand Gala—the premier fundraising event of the year. Additionally, a Heritage Week and business and heritage expo will run from October 10th to October 18th, aligning with the school's sports festival. “So, I'm asking everybody, all our friends overseas, to start planning your vacation around either the reunion week or the Heritage Week in October. Or, if you want to do both, we would love to have you come home and be a part of history,” Haughton urged. At the heart of the anniversary initiative is a comprehensive development drive aimed at raising $250 million to fund three core projects: a state-of-the-art multi-purpose auditorium, a high-tech smart room and a dedicated school bus. Explaining the vision behind the grand campaign, Haughton pointed to the humble origins of the institution. The current auditorium, built when the student population was a fraction of its current size, can only seat 200 to 300 people — a tight squeeze for a school population that has ballooned to roughly 2,000 students. Organisers plan to construct a new 500-to-600-capacity multi-purpose facility on campus one’s quadrangle with an estimated baseline cost of $150 million. Beyond serving school functions, the new space is envisioned as an income-generating facility. Complementing the auditorium project are two specific “Rusea's gifts”. The first is a cutting-edge smart room on campus two to modernise learning dynamics. “Technology has changed the way students learn, how teachers teach, how we do work, how we handle business, and we want to keep our students at Rusea's up to that standard,” a female committee representative explained. “We don't want them to only be spectators, but we want them to be innovators and to integrate technology into the learning process.” The third project addresses a critical logistical need: a school bus. Haughton noted that while the Class of 1981 previously kick-started an initiative for transportation, the anniversary committee aims to top up those funds to acquire a reliable vehicle. “We need to transport our boys to matches, our students to champs and school trips, and it's also a financial decision, because it's very costly now for every single engagement we have to charter a bus to take our students to and from,” the representative added, emphasising that not having a school bus currently “is like having a class without desks and chairs”. Organisers emphasised that the 250th anniversary transcends individual class years and regional chapters. “It's a Rusea's initiative. We strategically did not add any prefix or suffix. It's Rusea's 250. So, we're calling all class groups, we're calling all associations, overseas and locally, if it is this one time that we are working together as a unit for Rusea's anniversary... This is not a begging-money initiative; it's bigger than that. Our ambitions are $250 million. We are asking people to come on board and be a part of history, because we will be better for it 250 years from now,” emphasised Haughton. The media launch was held under the patronage of former Governor General Professor Kenneth Hall, a Rusea’s alumnus and former head boy. Other prominent alumni head boys in attendance included retired President of the Court of Appeal Justice Seymour Panton; Mayor of Montego Bay Richard Vernon; Head of the St James Police Division Superintendent Eron Samuels; and Rusea's school board Chairman Lionel Myrie. Other past students present were the Mayor of Lucea, Sheridan Samuels; his deputy, Andria Dehaney Grant; and Members of Parliament for Hanover Western and Eastern, Heatha Miller-Bennett and Andrea Purkiss, respectively. The school's origins trace back to Martin Rusea and his brother John, who were aboard a ship bound for the French West Indian island when Martin fell ill and landed in Jamaica. After being nursed back to health by the people of Hanover and local missionaries, Martin settled in the parish and became a prosperous businessman. In his will dated July 23, 1764, Martin bequeathed his entire fortune of £4,500 to the parish of Hanover as an expression of gratitude, stipulating that it be used to establish a free public school. The Assembly of Jamaica formally established the institution by an Act on December 3, 1777. Throughout the institution’s pioneering history, it became the first school in Jamaica to establish a language laboratory and among the first to launch a geology department. The school has produced numerous prominent leaders and figures, including Errald Miller, former chief executive officer (CEO) of Cable and Wireless Jamaica (Flow) and husband of former Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller; Enid Gonsalves, former principal of Lucea Primary and founder of Hanover Co-operative Credit Union (Infiniti); former MP for Hanover Western, Tamika Davis; Merlene Ottey, iconic Jamaican and Slovenian track-and-field pioneer and Olympic/World Championship medallist; and Stephen “Shorty” Malcolm and Aaron Lawrence, both national football players who represented the Reggae Boyz at the historic 1998 FIFA World Cup.