THE Jamaica Broilers Group hosted its 2015 back-to-school awards function at its head office in McCook’s Pen, St Catherine, last Tuesday.

President & CEO Christopher Levy, presented a symbolic cheque for $400,000 to Diana Bryan-Christie, principal of Spring Garden All-Age School, for disbursement by the Spring Village Development Foundation to 34 pre-selected students in the Spring Village community — home of the Best Dressed Chicken processing plant. The bursaries are awarded to students who do well on the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT), as well as to entrants at tertiary institutions. Recipients who maintain at least a B average throughout the course of their studies will continue to receive support from the group with each successful year of completion.

In addition, the company has made arrangements for 300 students from Spring Village, McCook’s Pen and Bodles/Freetown to receive backpacks loaded with an assortment of school supplies.

The back-to-school programme is a long-standing initiative of the island’s leading poultry company, spanning two decades and reaching thousands of students.

Levy, in his greeting to the students, parents and community leaders at the ceremony, expressed the importance of giving back to the communities within which the group operates and encouraged the youngsters to do the same as they grow older.

Guest speaker, Barrington Richardson, who is senior education officer for Region 6, endorsed Levy’s comments before presenting a motivational speech that had the youngsters fully engaged. His remarks were organised in three parts, under the theme “I am Responsible: I Can!”.

“It is important to note that failures of the past should not be references for the future. Some of you might not be going to your first choice of high school because you needed to have worked a little harder, but today Jamaica Broilers Group is affirming that it believes in you and is giving you the opportunity to excel… so there is no room for excuses,” Richardson said.

“Excuses are tools of the incompetent used to build bridges to nowhere and monuments of nothingness,” he continued, quoting US President Barack Obama.

He noted that there were three kinds of people in society: those who watch things happen; those who make things happen and those who don’t know what’s happening. Richardson congratulated the Jamaica Broilers Group for being among the group that makes things happen by releasing a spirit of “I Can!” in the communities in which it operates.

“The Ministry of Education is declaring today that you are not chickens (who are earth-bound), but you are eagles being empowered by the JB Group to new heights. So soar!” Richardson declared.