By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

SANTA Claus arrived early for 170 excited students at the R N Gomez All Age School last week, his sleigh a seaplane which landed at Great Harbour Cay in the north Berry Islands to deliver Christmas gifts and cheer.

Tropic Ocean Airways, a private seaplane company, has partnered with Cardinal Gibbons Catholic High School in Fort Lauderdale, in bringing gifts to children on the island.

Two planes - a wheeled aircraft and the seaplane - arrived around noon on Friday at Great Harbour Cay. As the seaplane landed on the water at the Beach Club and as Santa made his way out of the aircraft onto the beach with his bag of gifts, the children cheered “welcome Santa”, played drums and danced with him.

Jennifer Phanord, Public Relation/Marketing Associate for Tropic Ocean Airways, said this is the second time that they have partnered with Cardinal Gibbons to hold a “Santa Seaplane” trip to The Bahamas. “We collected the gifts from the school … there were so many gifts and it was such a good turnout that we had to load both planes, and some kids were able to get extra gifts - that’s how amazing and generous everybody was,” she said.

A list with the names of the students at R N Gomez was submitted to Tropic Ocean Airways and the students at Cardinal Gibbons - the former high school of Tropic Ocean Airways CEO Rob Ceravolo - was assigned the name of one Bahamian student.

R N Gomez School Principal Brian Williams thanked Tropic Ocean Airways and the Cardinal Gibbons Catholic High School for bringing smiles to the faces of the students. “We are indeed grateful to them because the children were very excited and happy for the gifts - but the highlight was seeing Santa,” he told The Tribune.

Mr Williams said that each student received a gift, and some up to three gifts. Normally there is low turnout during the last days of school term but said the turnout on Friday was very high. “I want to thank Tropic Ocean and Cardinal Gibbons because they went above and beyond and made the kids feel special. We had the highest turnout of students during the last days of school; we are excited about this partnership and looking forward to it growing every year,” he said.

Mr Williams said that R N Gomez, which caters for students from four in pre-school to 18 in Grade 12, has introduced some new programmes to help with the development of their students. “We are the fourth school outside of New Providence, Grand Bahama and Abaco to have a Rangers programme and we are very excited about it,” he added.

Mr Williams said their students are excelling academically too. “We sent our first student from Grade 11, who has attained six BGCSEs with C and above, to the College of the Bahamas.”

He said they have launched a Hope Academy to assist students who fall below a 2.0 Grade Point Average. The programme is co-ordinated by school guidance counsellor Fr Don Higgs.

“We have seen great progress with the students. We have had one student who was a part of the programme obtain eight BGCSEs. We are seeing gradual improvements with our students,” he said.

Tropic Ocean Airways is based in Fort Lauderdale and has been in operation for six years. It operates scheduled flights and private charters to Great Harbour Cay, Treasure Cay and Marsh Harbour in Abaco, and Bimini. It also flies to destinations in south Florida, including St Petersburg and Key West and has recently started a service to Cuba.