The Sunny Acres community in May Pen, Clarendon now boasts a fully furnished recreational centre, thanks to a team of Good Deeds Volunteers, led by Mine Technical Superintendent, Glenroy Lawrence.
For the past five years, Mr. Lawrence has successfully mobilized the support of some 20 Jamalcoans, some of whom reside in the Sunny Acres community, to help with the completion of the building. To date,
some J$2.5M has been disbursed to the community building project and the centre has been transformed from an unoccupied construction site into a fully functional facility.
“In 2010, the citizens’ association broke ground for the construction of a community centre after the
approval was granted by the Clarendon Parish Council. However, the project ceased in 2013 due to
little support and no funding,” said Mr. Lawrence.
Nevertheless, things started looking up for Sunny Acres in 2014, when Mr. Lawrence, who was then President of the association, was encouraged by Community Relations Officer, Natalee Irving, to sign up for the Bravo! Volunteer programme (now Good Deeds) to continue the project.
“I teamed up with Sunny Acres residents and Jamalco employees from the HR, EHS, Mining and Lands, Instrument & Electrical, Laboratory, Maintenance and Security departments to start the project,” said Mr. Lawrence. He commended his Jamalco colleagues Emil Foster, Hazeth Mitchell-Foster, Joan Thompson, Junior Edwards, Leanord Francis, Uton Mitchell, Presley Clarke, Damian Hewitt, Melanie Thwaites, Ku-Wayne Hart, Steve Gooden, Devon Johnson, Villon Coleman, Gary Ford, Norman Levy, Eandoh Scott, Damion Fagon, Vaughn Brown, Sasha Hibbert and Denvor Hendricks for their invaluable contribution as
volunteers over the years, while noting that the team will continue its Good Deeds project in 2019.
“The next major steps will be the establishment of a garden and landscaping of the grounds. Work in
this area began in October 2018 and will be the focus for 2019,” he said.
Fellow Good Deeds volunteer, Hazeth Mitchell-Foster, said she is proud of the progress that has been
made so far.
“It’s a really good feeling seeing the end results, knowing that when we started the project five years
ago, the building was just a shell. Good Deeds is unlike any other volunteer programme and I can’t
think of any other company in Jamaica which offers such a beneficial opportunity to its employees and
their communities,” she said.