A Message from the President
Dear Friends,
It has been a busy year and we thank you for your tremendous support! Please take a little time to explore our newsletter, connect to the stories and information in the links and learn more about the impact of your giving.
This past year we were thrilled to honor 5 incredible sons of Jamaica at our Galas in New York and Miami: Mr. Lowell Hawthorne, Mr. Dennis Lalor, Mr. Lascelles Chin, Mr. Marlon Hill and Superintendent Robert Runcie. Their accomplishments, their philanthropy and their example serve to inspire us all.
Our grant making focus continues to be to identify and partner with organizations on the ground in Jamaica doing meaningful, impactful work, so that we may ensure that our donations do the most good in the communities they serve. You can read about Newell High School where our grant seeks to include training programs in one of the most underperforming high schools in Jamaica – focused on increasing attendance and preparing students for the workplace; about our continued emphasis on interventions in the pre-school arena reflecting the research of the World Health Organization that shows this translates into real increased earning potential in adulthood; and about support for the Issa Trust’s new free pediatric and maternity care clinic in inner city Kingston.
This year we expanded our fundraising to launch our first social media campaign with the Pocket Rocket Foundation, an organization founded by Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce to award scholarships to scholar athletes in need. We were thrilled to fund 4 scholarships as a result of this initiative and we hope you got to see some of the posts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. If you don’t already follow us, please do, all of the information is on the home page of this website.
We hope you will join us at our upcoming Gala in New York City on October 5, when we will celebrate our honorees Mr. Robert Pittman and Mr. Gary “Butch” Hendrickson. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me at any time to discuss our programs or your own passion for particular causes in Jamaica.
One Love
Wendy Hart
President
