NEGRIL, Westmoreland – The Negril Chamber of Commerce has described ‘A Night of Modern Caribbean Cuisine with Chef Jason Howard’, the chamber’s first major fund-raising event since the onset of the novel coronavirus pandemic a little over two years ago, as a big success.

The event, proceeds from which will assist in funding various projects that the chamber undertakes, was held at the Charela Inn Hotel’s Le Vendôme Restaurant in Negril last Friday.

Preliminary figures indicate that the chamber was able to raise more than $250,000 from the staging.

Treasurer for the chamber, Sophia Grizzle Roumel, told the Jamaica Observer West on Tuesday that Charela Inn had staged the event “at cost price by donating human resource time, among other things, including the services of Chef Jason Howard, a Barbadian-born.”

She added that the fund-raiser was also an opportunity for locals to get a taste of the chef’s cuisine.

President of the Negril Chamber of Commerce, Richard Wallace, said the chamber was able to achieve its goals from the fund-raiser which, he said, was well-received, despite a heavy downpour of rain that afternoon.

“It was really refreshing for us to have a fund-raiser where we can mix and mingle and enjoy each other’s company and at the same time raise money for the chamber. So, we missed it for the two years that we weren’t able [to host a fund-raiser] and we are very happy to get back to some semblance of normal life,” stated Wallace.

Even though the chamber was not able to host social activities during the pandemic, the group was able to undertake projects at the Negril Police Station and to assist workers in the tourism industry with the assistance of the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF).

“We really appreciate that we have directors including myself who were really willing to put money out to help the causes that we wanted to help during the last two years,” said Wallace.

Among projects the chamber undertook during the pandemic were the purchase of spare parts for police vehicles assigned to the Negril Police Station as well as the purchase of a water tank for the station.

And with the assistance of TEF, the chamber was also able to distribute more than 12,000 care packages to tourism workers and others on multiple occasions. Face masks were also distributed with the assistance of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA).

Additionally, the chamber was successful in lobbying the Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo) to provide two vehicles to be used by the resort police to patrol the Negril seven-mile white sand beach as a replacement for the defective ones.