Hurricane Beryl barrelled down on the island’s coast on Wednesday, July 3, leaving much damage and destruction in its wake.

In response, the promoters behind three of the country’s biggest events, Festival of Floats (FOF), Dream Weekend, and Xodus Carnival, pooled resources to assist those affected by the torrents.

“We’ve always had a culture of giving back, from building a house with Food for The Poor years ago, to most recently gift drives for the needy at Christmas and collections to support donations to period poverty. Before Beryl even hit we were preparing to do something no matter what the extent of the damage was,” Carlos Philpotts, sales director for Dream Entertainment told the Jamaica Observer on Thursday.

Cases of bottled water, canned and non-perishable food items, and toiletries were purchased and sent to political representatives in St Ann and St Elizabeth for distribution to affected residents.

“Well, we sent items to both St Ann and St Elizabeth. In both cases we turned over what was collected to ministers Matthew Samuda and Floyd Green for them to distribute where they saw the most need. Initially we purchased the first set of items for donation. We then posted on our social media pages that we were trying to get as many items as possible to help and our wonderful patrons that follow those pages clamoured to support. We received donations of both products and assistance to organise collection, pickups of donation items, and help to turn the items over. It was great to see everyone come together to help out others,” Philpotts shared.

He said that the work is not done, as there existed other individual in need of assistance.

“It’s awful to see anyone impacted negatively and we’re determined to help wherever we can. So although our first donation drive ended, we’ll also have donation boxes at our very next event Festival Of Floats (Sunday, July 14), where patrons can drop of items and the same will be happening at Dream Weekend in Negril,” he shared.