Saltus Grammar students yesterday presented a Black History Month project on former Progressive Labour Party leader L. Frederick Wade to Premier Alex Scott.

At a lunchtime ceremony at the party's headquarters, Alaska Hall, Mr. Scott congratulated the students for their effort and urged them to look at their own parents and appreciate their own contributions to their lives and the lives of others.

The project, a four panel informative display containing haikus, photographs, Peter Woolcock cartoons and historical and biographical information, celebrated Mr. Wade's life and his contributions to his party and Bermuda.

"The significance of his leadership to the Party is still felt by many who came to the Party organisation and the House of Parliament under his leadership," according to a statement by the party executive who attended the presentation.

"(Teacher) Ms Sophie Clark approached the Party about presenting the students' completed project on Mr. Wade to the Party for permanent display. The Party happily agreed to accept the students' work on behalf of one of our great leaders."

The statement added: "We are always impressed when our young people take time to learn and communicate the significance and importance of the lives and roles of leaders like the late L. Frederick Wade. It ensures they will never be forgotten."

Mr. Scott told The Royal Gazette that the project was significant because it meant the class "recognised the contributions of L. Frederick Wade... and probably there is now a respect for the PLP Government - or the Government full stop. That's a powerful project..."

He added: "If they respect and respond to Mr. Wade's life they will respect and respond to the Government that is a product of his contribution, his life. They represent the future of Bermuda and if there's mutual respect of all cultural groups there is no limit to what this country can achieve, nationally and internationally."

While the fact that 12 year old Freddy Wade junior was a member of the class may have been an incentive to choose his father as the subject of their project, teachers said that the choice was unanimous and that the project took on a life of its own once the group had done initial research and it was voted the winning project in a school competition.

"They are an excellent form," said form tutor Ms Clark.

An introductory statement to the project said that Mr. Wades' name was already familiar to the class but "most of us did not know an awful lot about what he had actually been involved with during his life. So we've learned a lot about what he did for the PLP party and for Bermuda."

The late Mr. Wade, represented Devonshire North from 1968, becoming PLP leader in 1985, until his sudden death in 1996.