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American Friends of Jamaica bears gifts

Published:Friday | April 15, 2011 | 12:00 AM
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President of the American Friends of Jamaica Ambassador Sue Cobb (centre, back row) and US Ambassador Pamela Bridgewater (fourth right, back row) take a pic with recipients of grants for 2011 (from left, seated) Barbara Sears, Winsome Charlton, Virginia Woods and Odeth Barrett and (from left, back row) Pauline Beaumont, Marcia McLeod, Sheila Graham, Glenn Lawrence, Janilee Abrikian, Joy Laesch and Jodian Williams. - photos by Rudolph Brown/Photographer
President of the American Friends of Jamaica Ambassador Sue Cobb congratulates Duvanne Bailey after leading the singing of 'You Raise Me Up'.
From left: Former US Ambassador Sue Cobb jokes with Ambassador Pamela Bridgewater and Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett.
American Friends of Jamaica board members Sydney Engel and Monica Ladd are caught on camera.
PROComm's Jean Lowrie-Chin shares the frame with Ken Mason, Digicel's group business development director.
Deika Morrison (right) chats with Becky Stockhausen.
President of the American Friends of Jamaica Ambassador Sue Cobb gets a warm welcome from Isiah Parnell.
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Every spring, there are certain things you look forward to - the flowers bloom and the American Friends of Jamaica (AFJ) bestows gifts upon several organisations.

The latter event for 2011 took place on Tuesday, at the United States ambassador's residence on Paddington Terrace. Ambassador Pamela Bridgewater, honorary AFJ chair, said she had heard of the AFJ long before her tenure, and was proud to be involved in hosting the AFJ's annual grants ceremony.

President of the AFJ, Ambassador Sue Cobb, reminded the gathering that the AFJ funded projects in health, education and economic development.

"We greatly appreciate you being here. Your moral support and your leadership in this country are wonderful and we thank you," she said.

touching lives

Alex Williams, a University of the West Indies student, lauded the AFJ and Ambassador Cobb for their "continuous support to our nation's development".

Williams, a recipient of the scholarship named after Ambassador Cobb, is working towards being an economist, with dreams of creating a single Caribbean currency.

"I implore other private entities to follow suit ... by making contributions to touch the lives of Jamaicans that are in dire need of some assistance," he said, before ending with a quote "When you help someone up a hill, you get that much closer to the top yourself."

Representatives from 10 of the this year's recipients were on hand to receive the grants.

Others who had been presented earlier included the American International School Kingston, Hanover Charities, First Step Basic School, Friends of Hopewell, Jamaica Society for the Blind, Jamaican Association on Intellectual Disabilities and RISE Life Management.