ATLANTIC

Feds contribute to school in memory of Mountie

CTV Atlantic Published Friday, March 4, 2011 1:09PM AST

Canadian UN police officers observe a moment of silence for their fallen fellow Canadian UN police officers Douglas Coats and Mark Gallagher who were repatriated from Port au Prince, Haiti to Canada, Friday, Jan. 22, 2010. (THE CANADIAN PRESS)

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The federal government has announced it will help to keep the memory of a New Brunswick Mountie alive, in the form of a new school in Haiti.

Sergeant Mark Gallagher was taking part in a United Nations training force in Port-au-Prince when an earthquake struck on January 12, 2010, killing Gallagher and devastating the small nation of Haiti.

Gallagher was well known across the Maritimes as he worked as a RCMP spokesman to the media.

The Sergeant Mark Gallagher Vocational School will be erected in his honour in a suburb of Port-au-Prince, to replace a school that collapsed in the quake, killing 100 children.

The federal government has announced it will contribute $789,000 to the cause.

RELATED IMAGES

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Canadian members of the United Nations force in Haiti carry caskets of two RCMP officers killed in last week's earthquake during a ramp ceremony in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Friday, Jan. 22, 2010. The bodies of Supt. Doug Coates and Sgt. Mark Gallagher of Halifax will arrive at CFB Trenton later Friday. (Adrian Wyld / THE CANADIAN PRESS)
RCMP pallbearers carry the casket of Sgt. Mark Gallagher who was killed in a earthquake in Haiti last week along with RCMP Supt. Doug Coates at CFB Trenton on Friday, Jan. 22, 2010. (Nathan Denette / THE CANADIAN PRESS)
In this undated file photo, Sgt. Mark Gallagher of the RCMP speaks with CTV News in Halifax.