FOUR homes for the elderly received Christmas presents early this year as they were the recipients of donations from Courts Jamaica through the company’s ‘Share the Joy’ programme.

The furniture giant, in partnership with some its suppliers, provided gifts of small and large appliances, bedding and furniture at a total cost of $1.7 million.

The Share the Joy handing over ceremony took place at the Our Lady of Hope Church in Central Village, St Catherine, where one of Share the Joy’s beneficiaries, St Monica’s Home for the Abandoned is located. The other three beneficiaries, which are all located in the Kingston area include: the Golden Age Home, the Harrison Memorial Home for the Aged and the Hyacinth Lightbourne Visiting Nursing Service/Josephine Glasspole Convalescent Centre.

“I’m extremely grateful and it’s wonderful to see a major company giving back to the less fortunate and to places like this that care for people, so I think we’ve been blessed and there’s a morality to business and when we see something like this today, we know that the company themselves is being guided by good principles,” said Monsignor Richard Albert founder of St Patrick Foundation as well as St Monica’s Home for the Abandoned.

The general manager for the Golden Age Home, Laurette Adams-Thomas, also expressed delight and appreciation for the donation, saying it will go a far way to help with catering for the home’s 463 residents.

“Being the largest of our kind in Jamaica and the Caribbean, you can only imagine we would need a lot of resources to actually ensure we maintain operational efficiency,” said Adams-Thomas. “One of the things we focus on is holistic care, so these equipment and furniture will definitely go a far way in improving that vision and mandate of making holistic care a reality.”

According to Courts Jamaica’s managing director, Dennis Harris, part of the entity’s community and outreach social programmes is to provide support for the needy in society.

“Last year we did children and we just thought it appropriate this year to actually do the elderly which we recognise is a vulnerable part of our Jamaican people. We want to be able to cover all the areas in Jamaica whether you’re young, middle aged or youth, we are trying to give that support in many ways and so we thought that this was very appropriate for us to do this year,” Harris told the Jamaica Observer.

The CEO of Boss Furniture and one of the suppliers to Courts Omar Azan said he as well as his company was happy and willing to be a part of the initiative.

“Courts is our largest customer…to be honest, when we started 25 years ago, Courts started with us, we grew from nine Jamaicans to 200 hundred Jamaicans because of Courts and the Jamaican people shopping at Courts. Generally, we are always willing to help in whatever way we can and partner with customers like Courts to help Jamaicans make Jamaica a better place,” Azan, who brought greetings and well wishes on behalf of the other suppliers, stated.

— Javene Skyers