Hard work pays with GraceKennedy and Heather Little-White Household Workers 2015 Award Launch
Published:Friday | April 10, 2015 | 12:00 AM
According to GraceKennedy Group CEO Don Wehby, "Hard work does pay off." This was proven by the awardee of the GraceKennedy's Heather Little-White Household Worker.
A fairly new initiative by the GraceKennedy Group, the award is to recognise and reward three of Jamaica's finest household workers. The second instalment of the award was launched at the company's headquarters in downtown Kingston last Friday.
Wehby explains that the initiative was conceptualised by ProComm's Jean Lowrie-Chin and Simone Cooper, corporate communications manager. He noted that for last year's award they received 120 nominations beyond their expectation. "We hoped that this initiative would have been well received, but we were happy and satisfied by the 120 entries that came in, with many more coming in after our deadline date, which we couldn't include," said Wehby.
The winners of last year's household worker award are Elaine Duncan, first; Mervelyn Brown, second; and Edward McGowan in third place.
Wehby urges families across Jamaica to nominate their household worker in no more than 200 words if they have positively impacted their household, meeting the following criteria - alignment with the GraceKennedy values of honesty, integrity and trust, caring attitude and safety awareness, time management and family orientation and communication involvement. The deadline is May 15.
tears of joy
Wehby noted that in the inaugural staging of the awards, President of the Household Workers Union Shirley Price literally shed tears of joy as she recounted Dr Heather Little-White's dream that these individuals who work so hard to make our lives easier were given their due. "For Shirley Price, this initiative was a manifestation of Heather's dream, which had also become her mission. I commend her on the work she has done to
further that dream, and to further her own dreams for herself, Price is currently abroad pursuing her masters degree," Wehby disclosed.
Lowrie-Chin, who was also a member of the 2014 judging panel, shared with the audience that selecting the three winners was not an easy task, because all the nominees matched the criteria and subsequently brought some of the judges to tears.
Nominations are to be sent to gracekennedy@gkco.com or emailed to or dropped off at the company's head office, downtown. Deadline is May 15.