UWI Benefit Gala, Toronto style

The bridge to educational excellence that started in Canada and crossed the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean was strengthened on March 26 in downtown Toronto, Canada. Hosted by the University of the West Indies (UWI), the second annual benefit gala saw members of both communities gathered inside The Four Season's hotel.

"Tonight, we honour and celebrate outstanding community leaders, making it possible for young people to aspire to their dreams. The UWI Benefit Gala is also about reaching out, bringing people together," said G. Raymond Chang, patron of the event.

This year the bridge consisted of luminary award recipients Donovan Bailey, Olympian, world-record holding champion who sprinted from his native land, Jamaica, right into Canadian history; Jamaican-born Michael Lee-Chin, visionary entrepreneur, and Haitian-born The Right Honourable Michaelle Jean.

The words, education is the key to freedom, were the words Jean grew up hearing from her grandmother. "These words have brought clarity and meaning to my actions," said Jean. Explaining that Haiti needs partnerships, good governance and sustained investments in human resources, not badly planned, badly coordinated international aid. "Haiti can no longer be used as an experiment," said Jean.

Make the Difference

Inside the banquet hall of the hotel, each guest found at his/her seat a 'Help Make the Difference in the Life of a Student' donation card. The front of the card bore a photograph of the student in need of financial assistance, the name, nationality, campus, faculty, year of graduation, age and professional aspiration. The reverse side carried a check box that read: CDN$3,000 for one year's tuition for one student; CDN$1,500 towards living expenses for one student and CDN$500 towards books and supplies.

But, perhaps it was Michael Lee-Chin who put the evening into perspective. Forty years ago, he was that student who needed financial aid. When he arrived in Canada from Jamaica in 1970, he had CDN$2,000 in his pocket, enough to pay for only one year's tuition at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. "I didn't know how I would get the money to pay for second, third and fourth years." With a landscaping job on campus, he only managed to save CDN$600 and it was already the month of August. He would never make CDN$1,400 in one month, so Lee-Chin took matters into his own hands and wrote a letter to then Jamaican Prime Minister Hugh Shearer, stating that Jamaica must harvest what it sows. It worked. Chin was awarded a CDN$5,000 scholarship per year to complete his university studies at McMaster. Today, he is a highly successful businessman and chairman of Portland Holdings Incorporated.

But the doors of opportunity are not so easily accessible for some. Bruce Poon Tip, owner of GAP Adventures, dedicated his Chancellor's Award, which signifies wisdom and experience, to his mother who, despite her intellectual brilliance, was passed over by her family for higher education. "The aggressive decision made by my parents 40 years ago to migrate from Trinidad to Calgary," said Tip was to ensure that she would never have to pick and choose among her seven children who would receive an education. Ryerson President Sheldon Levy also received a Chancellor's Award. Ryerson's nursing programme started with 67 students from the Caribbean (St Lucia, Jamaica and Belize) and, in a short few years, it now boasts 239 nurses spanning 12 Caribbean nations.

Challenge and hard work

"There is no reward without challenge and hard work. We are here because each one of us has a special connection to the University," said G. Raymond Chang, for whom Ryerson's continuing education school is named.

Vice Chancellor's Award recipients included The Honourable Justice Dr Irving André, born in Curaçao, raised in Dominica and a student at UWI; Dr Karl Massiah, born in Barbados, entered UWI Mona in October 1959, studied neurosurgery and orthopaedic surgery; Kamala Jean Gopie, educator; Keith Forde, former deputy chief of police and the first black person in such role in the history of the Toronto Police Service, and Dr John Stewart, who arrived in Jamaica at age eight by banana boat with his parents from Europe. Stewart attended Knox College and later UWI where he gained honours in anatomy, physiology and pharmacology. "They taught me how to learn, they taught me how to want to learn, he said."

- Francine Buchner

Contributed photos