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Sunshine League directors mull its future

Children's bikes were left abandoned after the Sunshine League closed. File picture.

The Sunshine League Children’s Home is “keeping its options open” as the board of directors mull over its future.A legal notice printed in yesterday’s The Royal Gazette lists a number of possible uses for the former 24-hour residential facility on King Street in Pembroke.It states that the company aims to “promote the social, moral and spiritual uplift of the community” through such means as a children’s nursery, a short-term home for children in need or a Sunday school.The company aims to be given “broad powers” as the directors, who are volunteers, put their heads together to decide what to do with the 16-bed building.It comes less than two months after the Ministry of Youth, Families and Sports announced it was unsustainable for them to run the foster care for two to 18-year-olds.Government’s decision to pull out of a proposed agreement deal resulted in the 92-year-old children’s home closing its doors at the end of August.A spokeswoman for The Sunshine League Children’s Home, who did not want to be named, said there was “nothing out of the ordinary” about the memorandum of association. She said: “The object is to be as broad as possible, it’s all about increasing the scope of the company.“It doesn’t mean the company is going to utilise any or all of these ideas, they are just options being made available to them.“Nothing has been decided on yet, they are just looking at their options, keeping their options open”.The legal notice is in accordance with The Companies Act 1981 and was put in this newspaper by Appleby, the law firm acting as the attorneys of The Sunshine League.It is understood to be an amended version of a legal notice, which appeared in August, following a request from the Registrar of Companies.The notice also states that the company will operate “exclusively as a charitable organisation” and will create a fund to be used for charitable purposes. It explains that this involves receiving donations and legacies and awarding scholarships and bursaries.It also states that the company has the power to “hold and administer all personal property” under its name. This could include selling or mortgaging its property.The company spokesman said The Sunshine League had been a registered company since 1997.She added: “It’s nothing new, nothing has changed. It (the legal notice) has just been printed again to sort out some irregularities”.It comes after president Zakiya Johnson Lord told The Royal Gazette last month that The Sunshine League would retain its name and donations would continue to be collected. She said it was not the end, but rather the start of “a transition phase”.The children’s home first announced it would be closing at the start of July due to the excessively high cost of operating the 24-hour programme.But Government stepped in and said they would try to find a solution to keep the home up and running.Then Minister of Youth, Families and Sport Glenn Blakeney told a press conference: “Regrettably, despite considerable effort on the part of both Government and the Sunshine League, I must inform the public that it is not deemed viable for the Government to assume operational responsibility that would allow the Sunshine League to continue as a 24-hour residential foster care facility”.Government reduced The Sunshine League’s annual grant from $200,000 to $100,000 in the most recent budget.