Haitian school honouring N.B. RCMP Sgt. set to open
CBC News | Posted: September 22, 2014 2:41 PM | Last Updated: September 22, 2014
A vocational school named for Sgt. Mark Gallagher will open in Haiti Oct. 13
After years of fundraising, planning and building, a vocational school honouring a New Brunswick RCMP officer is set to open in Haiti.
Sgt. Mark Gallagher was in Haiti in January of 2010 as part of a United Nations peacekeeping mission when a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit.
He was killed when his apartment building collapsed.
Since then, plans have been underway to build the Sgt. Mark Gallagher Memorial Vocational School in a small community near Port-Au-Prince.
Richard Blaquiere has been involved in the planning, and says after many delays, he was overjoyed to see the building finally completed.
"It really made me very misty because I look at the building and then you look at the top and it says École de Formation Professional de Sgt. Mark Gallagher, that feels pretty good."
The school will open Oct. 13 after being delayed by everything from hurricanes to people squatting inside the building.
Blaquiere says Gallagher believed in education and would be proud of the school, which will offer several courses.
"The tiling and the flooring the masonry the agriculture and the carpentry program look good to go, but the secretarial program we're not so sure."
The school replaced a school that was destroyed in the 2010 earthquake.
Blaquiere says Gallagher's impact will be felt in Haiti for many years to come.
The $1.25-million project has taken nearly two years to complete.