How one resident made a positive contribution to Wisroc

MILLICENT Grant-Campbell was a volunteer at the privately owned village library but when her husband, Reginald Campbell, a well-known football coach in Linden became ill, she had to quit.
Her role at the Stacey Walters Library did not go unnoticed since she is a well-respected resident of Wisroc Village.

She spent 12 years at the Stacey Walters Library and served her community as a custodian of the institution for many years.
Grant-Campbell is a pleasant woman who is from East Canje, Berbice, but relocated to Wisroc when she was young, got married and never left the village.
The elder is a resident of Phase Two B, Wisroc, and is the wife of football coach Reginald Campbell, who will be celebrating his 74th birth anniversary in April.

Unfortunately, Campbell, who spent most of his life in the football arena became ill with dementia and is being cared for by his wife and a masseuse, Jean Williams, who visits twice a week.
He is said to be the oldest resident of that section of Wisroc.

Campbell was a skilled carpenter/mason and coached many youths in Linden, who became football stars, making their mark in the region and farther afield.
Grant-Campbell told the Pepperpot Magazine that she was working at the High Court in New Amsterdam when she met a young man, who was from Linden.
After their relationship blossomed, she visited him and when she indicated she wanted to return to Berbice he told her he didn’t have money.

Before she visited Linden, she had indicated that she did not want to live in any rented house, so the young man constructed a house.
Grant-Campbell sent in her resignation to the New Amsterdam High Court and stayed in Wisroc, the same house she resides in to date.
When her husband, the same young man she met and moved to Linden to be with died, she met Reginald Campbell and remarried after some time.

She has been a resident of Wisroc for more than 40 years, a place she likes and would visit her home village when she can, since she has siblings and relatives there.
“That young man once told me when we first met that if you can live in Linden then you can live anywhere and over the years, I realised that is [is] true,” she said.
She reported that the land was allocated for a place for senior citizens but that project did not materialise and instead a Lindener, Ingrid Walters, who resides overseas returned to Guyana for a visit and was asked by a child for a book.

It touched her deeply and considering the pile of books she had in her own garage overseas, she decided to build a library for the community of Wisroc.

It was through donations of books and her own money that she equipped the library with hundreds of books for the people of Wisroc, especially children, and gave the community to manage it.

After Ingrid Walters’ only child, a daughter, died from a rare form of brain cancer the library was named in her honour,the Stacey Walters’ Library.
Today the library is managed by residents of Wisroc, Gail Blair and Frank Moore and is open to members of the public, free of cost.

Grant-Campbell told the Pepperpot Magazine that the Stacey Walters Library is located next door to the Wisroc Health Centre, a good spot where the Wisroc Nursery School and police outpost are also located.

She said Ingrid Walters would return to her homeland twice a year and visit her home village of McKenzie, Linden and would bring even more books for the library.
Grant-Campbell added that she enjoyed working at the library and especially liked interacting with people, who visited the facility.
She stated that the Stacey Walters Library is under-utilised, even though it has internet-ready computers for research and other educational purposes.
The Stacey Walters Library opened its doors in 2006 after it was built and fenced.

The Wisroc community at Wismar, Linden, Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Upper Berbice) on November 11, 2018, benefitted from an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) hub.
It is located in the Stacy Walters’ Library; this hub is equipped with 10 laptop computers and Internet access.
However, while such hubs are usually placed in government-owned buildings, calls have been made for collaboration with non-governmental organisations so as to take the service to more communities.

Back then, the owner of the Stacey Walters Library, overseas-based Guyanese Ingrid Walters, stated that she is pleased to have the ICT hub in her building. The library is utilised mainly by residents of Wisroc.