Great Expectations and St John is braced for Hurricane Irma

Great Expectations should be okay; the Villa is constructed of 8-inch thick reinforced concrete and all our outdoor furniture, hammocks, pool floats, hot tub covers and 21 hurricane shutters have been secured, thanks to our great staff, for Irma's arrival tonight! [button title="Live Webcams" icon="" icon_position="" link="/webcam" target="" color="" font_color="" large="0" class="" download="" onclick=""]

building 3 closed

closed room closed

pools closing up

pool closing up

Here are a few ways to help those on St John who will need assistance after the hurricane passes:

donate

St John Rescue:An all-volunteer non-profit organization on the small island of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands dedicated to providing emergency rescue and medical support services to the St. John's EMS, Police, Fire, National Park and Health Clinic personnel.

donate st john foundation

St John Community Foundation: Created in 1989 after the devastation of Hurricane Hugo, the St. John Community Foundation has successfully been carrying out the mission of providing services and supporting programs that positively engage people, build resources and strengthen the St. John community since 1989. They continuously look for ways to fill service gaps and cultivate community assets including people, organizations, programs, and resources to effectively respond to changing needs of the community now and for future generations.

donate animal care center

St John Animal Care Center: The Animal Care Center (ACC) of St. John is located in Cruz Bay, near the library. The ACC addresses the problems of cruelty to, neglect and abuse of the island animals. The shelter provides kennels for homeless dogs and inside cages for a limited number of homeless cats. The ACC has volunteers across St John who establish and maintain feral cat feeding stations. At these locations, feral cats are trapped and taken to the local vet who tests for disease and if clear spays or neuters the cat.

Christmas Trees decorations helping the kids of St John

Mrs Larson and her class, with mom Petrolina and son Zack. The students are making their own ornaments and decorating

a tree that will be offered by silent auction

Many people who live on St John have an island name. There is Straw Hat Dave (yes, he always wears a straw hat), Mr Wonderful (our friend Leo Maximum who drives a Safari Taxi, builds just about anything, and, yes, is pretty outgoing), Pumpkin (the St John supervisor for VITELCO, St John's telephone company) and, now '

Christmas Tree Martha

'.  

Christmas Tree Martha is a dynamo of a person who has a passion for helping the kids of St John.  Her view, one we love, is that all kids have Abilities, not DisAbilities.  Martha is striving to bring those Abilities alive to shine for all to see. 

Over the years Martha's interests have grown to appreciate kids with lots of different disAbilities and last year, with the support of the St John Community Foundation, she founded the Adaptive Tennis Program for St John. Meeting every Tuesday morning at the St John public tennis court Martha, several volunteers, and a bunch of super eager kids come to the tennis court to experience just how able they are!  

KD Munnelly, Special Education teacher at Julius Sprauve School, with her students and Martha Toomey.

Making paper chains! 

Now, back to Christmas Tree Martha. This year Martha is offering christmas tree decorating services (upstairs at the Starfish Marketplace) and 100% of the profit will go to support her St John programs such as the Adaptive Tennis Program! If you would like to support the kids of St John stop by the Marketplace and buy a tree or a decoration. Not on St John -too bad for you!- but you still can help by contacting Martha directly on her Facebook page (Christmas Tree Martha) and she will be happy to tell you how to contribute to help the kids.  Donate (minimum bid of $100) to win the decorated tree in their silent auction! For more information about the variety of Christmas trees (including one decorated by Sloop Jones take a look at the recent issue of the St John Tradewinds. 

Martha, several volunteers, and budding tennis stars

If you find yourself on St John stop by the tennis court any Tuesday morning (usually around 8:30 AM) to volunteer and meet some of the kids. You will be the better for it!