I migrated from my beautiful home country of Jamaica as a young girl and it has always been a dream of mine and desire to give back to my country in some way.   I attended middle school, high school and college in the United States and worked for years in the Education/Youth Development field during and after college helping many students to be successful in their learning and life and wanted to extend my help to children/students throughout the world starting with Jamaica.   

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Over the years, I have always gone back to visit Jamaica and the community I grow up in, St Thomas and it is always very overwhelming to see how many families are struggling to make ends meet.  Many families can not afford to buy all the necessary supplies to send their child/children to school.  I realized that there is a great need where this problem is concern, not every child is fortunate to have the basic school necessities to go to school each year.  As a result, a few of years ago I started this mission.  I collected donations from friends, family and coworkers packed my suitcases and donated the school supplies to children at my Primary School, Duckenfield Primary in St Thomas, Jamaica and also to children throughout the island while on vacation. 

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Continuing this work is of great importance to me, so Barrels By Smiley was official created in 2019.   I am determine to make this my life long mission to give back whenever I can and as much as I can to one child at a time...one barrel and one smile at a time.        

 

Shanett Smiley

CE0/Founder

Bachelor's in Elementary/Special Education

Experience Youth Development Specialist