Global service organisations join hands to launch Celebrate Community Week 2025
Four of the world’s largest service organisations representing millions of charity-minded members joined forces Sunday to kick off activities marking Celebrate Community Week 2025, and Jamaica is in the thick of things.
The service clubs – all familiar to Jamaicans – are Kiwanis International; Lions Clubs International; Optimist International, and Rotary International. They have united to promote Celebrate Community Week, as a global movement that “highlights the power of collaboration in service”.
“Each year, millions of members across the globe take part in joint projects, setting aside individual banners to work together on issues that matter most. The initiative is a reminder that communities grow stronger when groups choose cooperation over competition,” the service clubs said. This year’s focus is on the environment, food insecurity, and hunger.
In Jamaica, the clubs will come together for two projects: On Saturday, September 20, 2025, there will be the Food for Growth Initiative for Kids, which provides breakfast items to children in the inner-city community of Cassava Piece, St Andrew.
The following day, September 21, 2025, the clubs will participate in International Coastal Clean-up Day 2025 in collaboration with the National Environmental Planning Agency (NEPA), “thus reinforcing the link between nurturing young people and protecting the natural spaces they will inherit”, said Kiwanis Club of Constant Spring President Sheron Gilzean.
“Locally, this effort brings together the Kiwanis Club of Constant Spring, the Lions Club of New Kingston, the Rotary Club of Kingston, the Royal Optimist Club of Kingston, the Optimist Club of Barbican Pines, and the Optimist Club of Harbour View.
“For the children who start their day with a proper meal, or the families who enjoy a cleaner shoreline, the benefits are immediate. But the broader message is just as important: when service clubs unite, their combined impact transforms lives.
“Celebrate Community Week is proof that while each club has its own traditions, our mission is shared to serve, to uplift, and to build a better tomorrow, one child one community at a time,” Gilzean emphasised.
