Jolly tars give helping hand to Panama schools

Over 60 sailors from 17 countries, participating in the  Panamax 2011 naval gave up off duty time to lend a helping hand to schools serving over 1,000 children in Herrera.

They did electrical repairs, painted and refurbished schools and donated medical equipment and cleaning materials for use in nursery programs. The volunteers  helped   strengthen ties between parents, teachers  and servicemen of participating countries in including members of Panama’s  National Aero-Naval  service(SENAN). The Director of Education Center Chumical Brisas, Diana Miller, said: "The help we received is much more than we expected, not only in painting and cleaning, but the sailors planted the seeds of friendship between us."