Local company, 3M Jamaica Ltd., recently launched its School Affinity Programme (SAP), which provides direct support for its employees to "give something back" to their alma maters.

To build this culture, 3M Jamaica will be providing support to employees through similar programmes so that they can get directly involved in developing education.

The first project under the programme was support for National Tree Planting Day in October 2006, where 3M staffers visited their alma maters to plant trees, in a programme co-ordinated with the assistance of the Forestry Division of the Ministry of Agriculture.

Happy about the project

"We are very happy to launch our school's Affinity Programme with such an important activity as tree planting, which will help to preserve the environment. This is fairly simple to do, but critical for our future survival and development," said Vincent Gordon, general manager for 3M Jamaica.

Mr. Gordon was speaking at St. Andrew High School where he accompanied four staff members and past students to participate in the tree planting exercise.

3M Jamaica is the 2005 Jamaica Employers' Federation (JEF) Employer of Choice for small-sized firms employing fewer than 100 employees. 3M is renowned world-wide for its outstanding innovation, which has led to the building of an impressive portfolio of over 60,000 products sold in over 200 countries.