TAKING their hospitality beyond the walls of Villa Mimosa Jamaica Limited (VMJ), staff members at the Discovery Bay, St Ann-based resort have been delivering relief to neighbours left hurting by Hurricane Melissa and are now preparing a second phase aimed at providing building materials for long-term recovery.

In the immediate aftermath of the Category 5 storm, with large parts of St Ann without electricity, VMJ and its HRH Mimosa yacht charter team recognised the growing needs around them. While the villa relied on generator power to stay operational, many nearby families had no such resources.

“You have a lot of people in St Ann still in darkness right now so we went ahead and we cooked warm meals that we delivered to the residents. We took grocery items, we took tarpaulin, toothpaste, baby clothes, diapers, wipes and sanitary napkins — so basically all those stuff that you could think of that are essential to everyday life. We pretty much packed up in two big Coaster buses and went there with some of our staff and family members,” said public relations manager at VMJ Kimberly Henry-Smith.

Their mission, though initially planned to focus on communities nearby, quickly extended to Maggotty, St Elizabeth and Troy, which borders Manchester and Trelawny.

“Our butler Jamar Williams, he is from Maggotty. He was letting us know how badly his area was affected and so we had to make sure that we went and gave him, his family, and his community some support. We also went to a place named Troy. One of our co-owners, Everton “Singing Melody” Hardweare, was raised in this area and so he led the directive to go help out on that side as well.

“So this was a very small group of us that did that [while] some of our guests contributed as well. Mount Zion Apostolic Church in Evanston, Illinois [United States], which is a church that Ruby Robinson Hardweare — our other co-owner and wife of Singing Melody — [attends, she] is a member at that church. They donated to us as well. The bulk of the donation came from them,” added Henry-Smith.

Now, the Villa Mimosa team is taking on a more ambitious phase of volunteerism — one not just focused on relief, but rebuilding. This time around, Henry-Smith said they intend to provide their generator as a source of power, and to give building materials.

“Our goal is to go beyond just bringing electricity to them, and bringing free Wi-Fi, and bringing food and clothes. Our goal is to get bigger with helping them with building supplies like…ply board, maybe some zinc, maybe a couple of bags of cement — whatever we can give,” said Henry-Smith.

Though the date for the next outreach event has not yet been announced, Henry-Smith said Villa Mimosa is open to the public joining their relief effort to help in whatever capacity possible.

“We’re trying to make it known that we are doing our part, to see if anybody wants to come on board with us. We are sending out messages to all our previous guests to see how many more will come on board, because quite a few have said they would be willing to help. We are not asking for money[but] if you want to come and you want to bring some board, whatever you have [will be appreciated]. If you want to come…you can, so we can help to put Jamaicans back on track,” added Henry-Smith.

People interested in volunteering alongside the VMJ team can contact Kimberly Henry-Smith at (876)382-2088 for more details.

— Renae Osbourne

CEO of Villa Mimosa Ruby Robinson hands a bottle of water to a child during a visit to one of the communities hard-hit by Melissa.