With Jamaica's 50th anniversary of Independence on everyone's minds, themes of patriotism and nation building are everywhere. The importance of being a good corporate citizen seems to have surged to new heights this year, with many Jamaican companies finding worthy causes and initiatives to support.

Recently, the Stewart's Automotive Group hired four temporary employees through the government-led Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme (JEEP). The four quickly became part of the Stewart's business family who committed to retaining one permanently. In addition to its usual summer employee programme in which several students worked alongside well-seasoned servicemen, administrative executives and sales personnel, each year the company is also a major contributor to the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica Youth Upliftment Through Employment (YUTE) programme, to the tune of $4.3 million to date.

Another initiative supported by the group this past summer was Camp Helping Our People Excel. This educational summer camp was part of the Member of Parliament Damion Crawford's initiative to improve the educational success of his East Rural St Andrew constituency -an area that has seen record low rates in literacy. The camp hosted students preparing to sit GSAT and CXC mathematics exams next year. They were taught by top instructors with years of experience in tutoring and exam preparation courses at the University of West Indies. The Group was all too happy to support the initiative in the amount of $940,000.00 to help provide essentials for the three-week camp.

These and several other causes supported by the Stewart's Automotive Group are ongoing. The group's charitable organisations Kind Hearts and the Richard & Diana Stewart Foundation continue to seek donations to carry out its non-profit ventures.

The Stewarts have been engaged in philanthropic endeavours for the past 30 years as their business grew from a service shop along Hanover Street in downtown Kingston to being a leading retailer and service provider of automotive and industrial brands in their spanking-new location along South Camp Road today.