Kids learn responsibility one guinep at a time

Though summer holidays mean no school, the kids involved in the Community Choice Guinep initiative are still learning valuable lessons.

The programme, which was launched in August 2014, is the brainchild of Prospect father Robbie Dixon, who wanted to provide a way to keep kids in his community, as well as his own children, busy and out of trouble during the summer break.

“I was concerned about the kids. Every summer the kids would just be here. They would gather from the community, come over to our home, and they would just be idle.

“I remember one day I was picking up the garbage in our main home… And I said to God, ‘What can I do to make these kids productive?’ ” he recalled.

Dixon, who was in the yard of his family home on Harris Lane, George Town, said he suddenly heard a voice speak to him and when he turned around he came face-to-face with the family’s guinep tree.

“There was a sense in my spirit that said let the kids pick the guineps and sell them; it would teach them life lessons… Now, it’s kind of history,” he said.

Divine calling

Dixon, a heavy equipment operator, said the project started with him climbing the tree and giving the guineps to the kids to sort and bag after which they set up a tent with a table opposite Buttonwood Avenue on his sister’s property to sell the fruit.

All the money earned, he said, is divided among the kids equally, depending on the hours and days they worked, and they can use their earnings to buy whatever they wanted.

Every August, he said, he would rotate who gets to be part of the initiative.

So far this year, sales have hit $1,000.

The operation runs like an assembly line; as the guineps are picked and lowered from the tree, one child collects the fruit and takes it to others assigned to sorting and packing it.

Dixon said the initiative has grown into a home business, which reminds him of the Caymanian tradition of resourcefulness since he also uses the thatch leaves from the family tree to tie the bundles together.

“We have about five different trees in our property, but this specific tree [we sell from] is choice. They’re just amazing guineps and people love them. Some people would come in here and purchase up to 20 different bundles at a time so we no longer have to go on the street,” he said.

In fact, Dixon said customers call in their orders and the kids get the bundles ready for collection.

“The sales just come right in. We don’t have enough guineps at the end of the year. For anyone wanting guineps you have to order early, before August 1st. Normally, we start the first week in August,” he said.

Damian Ebanks, 11, who lives in the George Town community, said he was happy to be part of this year’s guinep sales because he has some school books he wanted to get and he has his sights set on a new video game.

He said being part of the initiative has taught him to be helpful.

“I’d rather do this instead of playing, because while we’re in school, I use that [break] time to play,” the 11-year-old said, adding that he wants to earn summer money so when he goes away with his family he can shop for himself.

Dixon said he is motivated by the sense of independence and responsibility that the kids learn working with him.

“The kids come out and [it] gives them the life experience of how to do commerce. What we find in our community, especially the Cayman way of life, we had to earn our way,” he said.

Dixon said nowadays parents give their kids $400 Nike shoes and, in some cases, when they cannot afford that expense some children turn to crime to get the desired item.

“I hope that parents are listening and that there would be some kind of incentive or initiative for them to getting their kids more involved in the community as a whole. At the end of the day, there’s a saying that it takes a village to raise a child and we have to be more careful,” he said.

Raaya, Dixon’s 7-year-old daughter, along with her sister Nevaeh, 5, also helps out and she said she is happy to do it because she can buy what she wants.

“I would like to get some books for school and some pencils. I would like to get the books so I can read more… I like fairy tales,” she said.

Dixon believes in the divine purpose of what he is trying to do and he said before he started the initiative, the guinep trees did not bear as many fruits, but now they have been bountiful.

“Don’t underestimate small beginnings, this is where it starts,” he said.

Dixon can be reached at 925-4936.