The Tribune

By TAVIA AUMOITHE

A TEENAGER has battled strong winds and currents to kayak round New Providence and raise $7,000 in aid of the Nazareth Centre.

Max Bonnefoy, a student at Wellington College in England, was given a summer project to pursue, something not only interesting and challenging but creative.

The 15-year-old, who spent his early years in the Bahamas before the family moved to the United Kingdom, came up with the idea of kayaking due to his love of water and his choice to help the children’s home stemmed from the family’s involvement with the establishment of the Nazareth Centre in 2001.

“This country is important so me so I thought ‘why don’t I do something for it’,” he said yesterday as he handed over the cheque at the centre. “This island is so close to me and we are only here for two months, so I want to get on the water. Growing up, to have the opportunities, to be able to come here, is quite humbling.” Max spends part of the year in New Providence, returning for school holidays, seeing friends and maintaining his Bahamian roots. His project shows that this is where his heart is. “The sea has played a huge part of my growing up and has always been part of who I am. It was the first thing that came to mind when faced with the Personal Project. I decided to plan a circumnavigation of the island of New Providence by kayak as a way to mould the (required) skills and passions into a project.”

A dedicated watersportsman who believes the Bahamas has the best waters in the world, he envisaged the 44-mile circumnavigation earlier this month taking two days but it took two and a half days, with 18 hours of strenuous paddling.

The first day was scheduled to start at the Lyford Cay marina at 7am and end at Palm Cay Harbour on the eastern tip of the island but due to strong headwinds and the rough current, it took Max four hours to get to Nassau Harbour and another four to get through it.

He was accompanied by his father, Philippe, and a Royal Bahamas Defence Force escort helped them because of the dangers in Nassau Harbour. “It was so much current it was really difficult and we were paddling for hours,” he said. “So we stopped a little short.”

On the second day they carried on round the south of the island “and we just kept going, we just kept paddling and paddling and paddling for hours” before resting at Albany. On the third day they completed the trip by returning to Lyford Cay.

He said he knew that it would be a physical and mental challenge as well as a strength test. “It was tough,” he admitted. Apart from the current making the task more arduous, there was an encounter with a shark, which he spotted and which started to follow him, but he persevered.

“You’re on the boat, it’s very small, and it really hurts, your arms starting to hurt a bit. And then you think what you are doing it for, where the money is going, and you forget about it so you just keep going,” he said.

The Nazareth Centre is a government-owned orphanage for abused and neglected children. It opened in 2004 and has an average of 42 children – from infants to 11-year-olds – who are cared for 24 hours a day. It is privately funded and managed by the Catholic Archdiocese of Nassau.

The administrator of the centre, Fiordilisa Bain, said yesterday: “I can name several things that we can use the donation for right now. I’m thankful, I’m grateful.” Funds were raised for the project by Max’s family, friends and other supporters in Australia, UK, Belgium, France, US, Bahamas, Switzerland, Sweden, South Africa and Norway via his GoFundMe.com website.

“He conceived it, he developed it, he did everything himself and I just came along for the ride,” Mr Bonnefoy, who believes that it is important to give back to the community and has instilled in his son the same mindset, said.

Mr Bonnefoy first began visiting the Bahamas in the 1970s, lived here for years and eventually gained Bahamian citizenship. “All of our children have been taught to give back to the community,” he said.

“We financed the construction of the Nazareth Centre 14 years ago just after Max was born and he felt that as a personal project helping abused children in our community was a worthy cause to support. We all believe it is impossible to live and be part of a community and not take responsibility to make it better for those who need critical social support.”

The circumnavigation was not Max’s first charity effort this summer. In July he went to Tanzania for a school service project assisting disabled textile workers.

Wellington College’s five core values of “Courage, Integrity, Responsibility, Respect and Kindness” have been exemplified in him this summer.