Jackson family US$6,700 donation pushes Old Harbour Primary closer to bus drive target

This he told Old Harbour News in an interview after a family of past students donated US$6,700 towards the initiative, the single largest donation made since launching its ‘Bus Di School Drive’ fundraiser in 2019.

After hearing of the initiative, three generations of the Jackson family, who grew up on Lafe Street, Old Harbour, literally next door to the institution’s former location at 41 East Street in the town centre, decided to make a “small contribution”. It was their way of giving back to a school that gave them the very foundation that their successes have been built on.

When they pooled all the donations from within the group who attended the school between the 1950s and 1980s, two made the trip from the United States of America and presented the “awesome” gift, which Principal Goode said will reduce the school’s transportation bill which costs them hundreds of thousands of dollars annually for off-campus activities.

“For a brand new bus at Toyota Jamaica, you looking at like $14 million, so we weren’t really targeting to have a brand new bus per se, but we hope to import a bus from Japan that is at least five years old,” Goode said. “So that’s our intention and we feel that $8 million could take us there, though if we get more we’ll definitely invest in something that is newer.”

“Currently we are approximately at $7 million of our target so we are very close to the finish line and we look forward to some further assistance from corporate companies and past students on a whole to see how best we can acquire this bus for our students,” he continued. 

“With the bus we hope to help neighbouring schools with it as well, because in the Old Harbour area, in terms of primary schools, there are no other primary schools that have a bus. So the aim is also to assist other schools when they need to use the bus.”

According to Goode, the school has written quite a few sponsorship letters to corporate companies and the Japan Embassy in Jamaica but they are yet to get a response. What they have generated so far, he noted, was achieved on their own from contributions from parents, teachers, past students and other fundraising initiatives.

“We have not gotten any response from corporate companies just yet but we have written quite a few proposals seeking sponsorship for our bus drive,” he said. 

The significance of the donation was highlighted by Merrin Jackson-Palmer and her sister Jelyn Jackson-Williams travelling to Jamaica for the sole purpose of making the presentation to the school and then return to their home in the United States, all within 24 hours.

“For over three decades, 14 children and three grandchildren came through [Rev] Wilton Simeon [Jackson] and Daphne May Jackson to attend Old Harbour Primary School. When my sisters in America heard about the bus drive they mobilized the family to contribute to this worthy cause,” said Jackson-Palmer before presenting the cheque and a plaque with the names of all members who attended the primary institution during the period. 

The sisters were also accompanied by relatives Garfield Jackson and Janika Jackson in making the presentation during Monday’s regular morning devotion at the school.
They commended Principal Goode and his teaching staff for building on the legacies of former headmasters who served the school for more than half a century.

“It is an awesome feeling and I’m really grateful to the Jackson family for their support, it has really given our bus drive a great push that we are really appreciative of,” added Goode. “So I just want to say thanks to them because we were really lagging behind where our targets are concerned because we really wanted to complete same by last December but we are still on the drive.”