NEW YORK, USA — Irwine Clare Sr, head of Team Jamaica Bickle — the non-profit body which has helped Jamaican and other Caribbean athletes at the prestigious Penn Relays for the past three decades — disclosed that his organisation is working on long-term plans to establish a legacy project at G C Foster College of Physical Education and Sport in St Catherine.

Clare, a leading Diaspora community activist, made the announcement shortly after accepting the 2025 Community Service Award at the 17th annual fund-raising and awards banquet here in recognition of the outstanding work of Team Jamaica Bickle over the years.

“The idea is for a build out of a rehabilitation and rejuvenation facility at the college for athletes. We are in discussions with Second Round Foundation, the New Jersey-based non-profit organisation co-founded by New York Knicks Basketball star Jalen Brunson,” Clare told the Jamaica Observer.

Brunson’s maternal grandparents are Jamaican nationals.

Educator Dr Denninston Reid addressing the 2025 Fundraising Banquet of the Ex-Correctional Officers Association of Jamaica in Queens, New York.

Also speaking at the banquet, president of the Ex-Correctional Officers Association of Jamaica, Ronnie Hammick announced that the association, in collaboration with the North Bronx Seventh-day Adventist Church, will be resuming their efforts to, “bring awareness to at-risk youths and others about the consequences of incarceration”.

The church and the organisation have been hosting an annual, day-long seminar on the subject in a bid to reduce the number of mostly young people who are engaging in activities that see them ending up being incarcerated.

Under the programme, law enforcement officers, probation officers, people who have gone through incarceration, and others are tapped to give presentations at the forum.

Hammick noted that the programme was discontinued as a result of COVID-19 and that a date is to be announced soon for its resumption later this year.

Jamaican-born educator Dr Denninston Reid urged parents of minority students, community-based organisations, and elected officials to collaborate on closing what he describes as “the sobering education achievement gap which exists between minority students and others across the United States”.

Delivering the keynote address, Dr Reid said that, “a persistent shadow continues to darken the landscape of opportunity for young people in New York City and the rest of the country…Some refer to this darkness as the achievement gap, which means any significant and persistent disparity in academic performance or educational attainment between different groups of students,” he said. “It (achievement gap) represents the unrealised potential of countless black, Hispanic, and indigenous students like us,” he added.

Alicia Barton (right) speaks after accepting one of three 2025 scholarship awards at the fundraising and awards banquet of the Ex-Correctional Officers Association of Jamaica in Queens, New York. Governie Daley, a member of the association’s education committee, is at left.

The New York Times in 2021 chronicled the outstanding achievements of students of Dr Reid, a 30-year veteran of the New York School system, which showed that over 87 per cent excelled in New York State English language arts, and 98 per cent in mathematics.

Along with his wife Dr Charlene Reid he established Excellence Community Schools, a group of 20 charter schools which operate in New York and Connecticut. In 2012, two of the schools and four others in 2023 were designated National Blue Ribbon Schools by the United States Department of Education.

Blue Ribbon Schools are recognised for their outstanding academic achievements.

The fund-raising banquet was also addressed by current Superintendent Leslie Campbell of the Department of Correctional Services (DCS).