RACEHORSE owner Ruddy Levy and friends extended a helping hand to residents of the Gregory Park community recently when they donated care packages as their contribution to the novel coronavirus relief effort.

The community, sitting just outside the Caymanas Park racetrack, is home to many of the stakeholders.

Since the closure of the racetrack on March 21 due to the spread of highly contagious disease, Gregory Park has been significantly impacted.

Approximately 50 care packages were given to mostly elderly residents so as to ease some of the burdens caused by the virus. The care packages contained rice, flour, crackers, syrup, cooking oil, ketchup, as well as canned food items.

Levy, who is a member of the Superkids syndicate, said the contribution was easy for him as he not only resides in Gregory Park, but was also giving back to the community which had done a lot for him over the years.

“Since the racetrack closed, many people and businesses have been affected and suffered a lot as well. The racetrack itself has provided work for many people in the community and now they have nothing. This was an easy move for me as the community has shown me love for many years and this is a way in which I say thank you for those years. I consider all residents as family,” Levy told the Jamaica Observer.

“I also want to thank the persons who were on board with me for this as I appreciated their help a lot. Some persons are finding it very difficult at this time and I just want to help in the best way that I can. I feel like I am doing something good,” Levy continued.

The Superkids syndicate has owned horses such as the talented filly Pinelope, the hard-knocking Don Chassis, as well as Top Shelf, My Episode, Blood Song, and Lici’s Pepsi, among others.

In a show of support for residents of the challenged community, at the backend of last month, the Supreme Ventures Group (SVG) joined forces with the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) to assist with its PSOJ Cares Partnership, where care packages of basic food items were delivered as part of the relief efforts.

The focus on the Gregory Park community was to show SVG’s support to the residents, many of whom visit or maintain a livelihood from the operations at the racetrack.

Caymanas Park is operated by Supreme Ventures Racing and Entertainment Limited (SVREL), a wholly owned subsidiary of SVG.

Gary Peart, executive chairman at SVG, said at the time that while his company had lent support to the racetrack and stakeholders, it was also important that people in the surrounding communities of Caymanas Park get some support as well.

“The track has been closed for some time and the ability to earn has also been reduced, so we thought it was important to get involved in this initiative for people who are really in need in the surrounding environment.

“We gave them care packages with a lot of basic food items which, on average, we understand could last from two weeks to a month, depending on how it is used. It is a way of making people in our ecosystem understand that we care for them.

The residents received a total of 304 care packages containing rice, flour, cooking oil, canned items, along with some hard-to-come-by commodities such as soap and toilet paper.