Trelawny students, teachers get Valentine’s Day gifts
BOUNTY HALL, Trelawny — Students and teachers of two Trelawny primary and infant schools, namely Bounty Hall and Wakefield, received a variety of educational toys and games from United States-based philanthropist Dr Claudette O’brien — the founder and senior pastor of Pinnacle of Faith Ministry — on Valentine’s Day.
O’brien could not physically make the trip to Jamaica, but the donations were handed over by her son, radio presenter and chief executive officer of Caribbean Urban Media Group, Michael Downer, who goes by the moniker ‘Mikey Mike.’
The day’s activities at both schools were streamed live in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, by radio stations WZOP and WZPP, and Flexx TV.
The donations were initiated through a partnership forged between Councillor Jonathan Bartley (Wakefield Division, Jamaica Labour Party) and O’brien.
“I just want to say a happy Valentine’s Day. I just want to say I love you all and I will continue as God has blessed me and has given me life to support the children in Trelawny and in Jamaica,” said O’brien in a virtual message.
“I have always sent things to Portland, Ocho Rios, all over. And then when I noticed that Councillor Bartley is such a decent man, I started blessing the area with things like a few years ago. And I can tell you that we should sing today that he’s a jolly good fellow because this man has a heart of God. This is what God requires of us.”
Bartley, who expressed his gratitude to O’brien and her team, encouraged the students to make use of the games, urging them to play in groups instead of fighting among themselves.
“They [Dr O’brien and team] decided that they want to partner with us to share, to give you gifts, toys that you can play with together as a group. So instead of fighting, we can play and have fun. So we are here because of her love and kindness. She is from St Mary and she could have gone into that parish or somewhere else, but they chose Trelawny,” Bartley told the students at Bounty Hall, a message he replicated at Wakefield.
Downer told the Jamaica Observer West that the Valentine Day’s gifts were just a tip of the iceberg as plans are afoot to do much more for students in the parish, from where his wife hails.
“My wife [Bridgette] is from Trelawny and we have friends in the parish, so we decided to come this way first. I want to make sure that the children are happy. Mr Bartley has been doing this for a while. I hope we will be able to drop a bus for the school [Bounty Hall] by next year. So this will be something big,” said the CEO of Caribbean Urban Media Group.
“My mother, who is Dr Claudette O’brien, started out in music and she always instilled in us to always give back. My father and mother were involved in music. My father was a sound system operator in the days when we were in Jamaica.
We decided to use the stations now to give back to people. We have seven stations now covering Florida. So we use the stations to give back to people because of the blessings that we get from God.”
Principal of Wakefield Primary and Infant Michael James, and Duwayne Morrison of Bounty Hall Primary expressed their gratitude for the gifts.