A day af­ter their plight was high­light­ed, Pleas­antville Sec­ondary School Pan­jam­mers re­ceived news that JMMB Ex­press plans to in­vest $20,000 to as­sist them in com­pet­ing at the Na­tion­al Sec­ondary Schools Panora­ma fi­nals.

JMMB Ex­press CEO El­son James re­spond­ed to Guardian Me­dia's ex­clu­sive sto­ry as the Pan­jam­mers plead­ed with the pub­lic to as­sist them in get­ting a spon­sor for the fi­nals which are set to take place this week­end at the Queens Park Sa­van­nah Grand Stand.

Af­ter read­ing the sto­ry, James con­tact­ed JMMB Ex­press San Fer­nan­do Man­ag­er Do­minic Vic­tor who reached out to the school to of­fer as­sis­tance.

"JMMB Ex­press thought it per­ti­nent to sup­port this school as they are part of the San Fer­nan­do com­mu­ni­ty which JMMB Ex­press serve as well as our strong be­lief in in­vest­ing in our youth, cul­ture and mu­sic," James said in the state­ment.

“Per­son­al­ly, I hold the steel­pan near and dear to my heart. I see the steel­pan as a per­fect rep­re­sen­ta­tion of our peo­ple’s cul­ture and cre­ativ­i­ty. I strong­ly be­lieve in pro­vid­ing a pos­i­tive av­enue for youth to ex­press their cre­ativ­i­ty and pas­sion as it is much need­ed in to­day’s so­ci­ety, and the Ju­nior Panora­ma com­pe­ti­tion is do­ing just that," he added.

The CEO said, "We need to help these young peo­ple to­day to make the right choic­es and help them suc­ceed in their dreams and as­pi­ra­tions. Pleas­antville Sec­ondary School should al­so be giv­en a fair op­por­tu­ni­ty to par­tic­i­pate like any oth­er school. We at JMMB Ex­press would like to em­pow­er them to do just that."

Wish­ing the team the best in the fi­nals, James said: " I am very proud to help my com­mu­ni­ty in which we serve." He said the JMMB Ex­press team will be do­ing a han­dover pay­ment to the school soon.

The Pan­jam­mers con­sist of sev­er­al first-time steel­pan play­ers who on­ly start­ed learn­ing about the in­stru­ment last No­vem­ber. Af­ter six weeks of prac­tice which of­ten last­ed for over five hours every day of the week, the stu­dents man­aged to earn a place in the fi­nals.

Mu­sic arranger Cur­tis Mar­celle who has been work­ing dai­ly with the band con­grat­u­lat­ed the stu­dents say­ing he was proud of their progress. The stu­dents have been prac­tis­ing at the NL­CB Fon­clair pa­n­yard which has a long-stand­ing re­la­tion­ship with the school.

De­spite the $20,000 in­vest­ment by JMMB Ex­press, the school still needs $15,000 for the trans­porta­tion of the in­stru­ments. Mar­celle is hop­ing that a con­trac­tor can do­nate a truck to trans­port the steel­pans for the event.

Any­one want­i­ng to as­sist the stu­dents by con­tribut­ing snacks, lunch, and wa­ter can call 797-5489 or 369-5628 or make do­na­tions to RBC High Street San Fer­nan­do at Ac­count #981100810.