 
Peter Laws, who came to San Pedro on May 25th, 1997, to act as the curator of the Ambergris Caye Museum, will leave San Pedro on August 29th, 1998, to return home to England. Laws is originally from England and applied to the Volunteer Service Overseas in June of 1996 after working as a curator for 15 years at museums in England. He received word shortly after his application that the Ambergris Caye Museum Historical Society had applied for a VSO member to assist them. The person they were looking for was to act as curator of the museum and work with the society to finalize plans and details of the museum's exhibits and eventually open the museum to the public. In February of 1998, Laws accomplished his goal and the museum was opened to the public. Since then, Laws has been instrumental in educating the people of San Pedro about the history of their island through participation in local committees and writing for the San Pedro Sun. Laws was the head of the educational section of the 150th Anniversary of San Pedro Committee. He organized programs to familiarize children of San Pedro with the museum's precious treasures and established a program where the school children of San Pedro made writing contributions to the museum's bottle exhibit. In June of this year, as Laws' 15 month term in Belize drew to an end, Zhenia Perez was hired as a curator trainee. Under the tutorship of Laws, Perez was prepared to resume responsibility for the museum after Laws' departure. Peter Laws will return to Yorkshire, England, where his parents live. He hopes to find a job there and possibly, if the opportunity arises, travel as a VSO to some other country where his services will be needed. "I feel very proud to know that I have accomplished what I set out to do. I can go back and say that when I came there was no museum, but when I left there was one. It has been fun and I wish I could stay longer but there is no more money. My job is done. I will always cherish the memories I have of San Pedro and its people."
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