The Queens-based Team Jamaica Bickle (TJB), the organization that provides meals and accommodation to Caribbean athletes participating in the Penn Relays at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, has said that it will donate 15 more Automated External Defibrillators (AEDS) to schools across Jamaica.
TJB, headed by Irwine Clare, said the presentation and training ceremony will take place on Friday at the JAMPRO Auditorium, 18 Trafalgar Road, Kingston 10. The schools will also receive First Aid kits.
Schools set to receive units are: Edwin Allen High, McGrath High, Lacovia High, Oracabessa High, St. Mary Technical High, Guy’s Hill High, Titchfield High, Horace Clarke High, Manning’s High, Kemps Hill High, Mile Gully High, Rhodes Hall High, Yallahs High, Cedric Titus High and Godfrey Stewart High.
Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Sen. Ruel Reid; Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sports, Olivia Grange; and Minister of Health, Dr. Christopher Tufton are expected to attend the event.
Training will be conducted by TJB’s long-standing resident trainers, nurses Sharon Thompson and Delores McGregor from the Diaspora Healthcare Sector.
TJB said it began its Defibrillator to Schools Program in 2014 after the death of student-athlete Cavahn McKenzie of St. Jago High.
Since that time, TJB said it has donated dozens of units and facilitated several others, with about 45 schools benefiting.
“It is the organization’s goal to outfit each high school with an AED unit,” the statement said.
It said Diaspora entities Homesmart Realty, Irie Jam360, Jamaica Breezes Restaurant, Sandz Restaurant & Bar, The Door Restaurant, Tower Isles Frozen Foods and local entity, The Airports Authority of Jamaica are among this year’s supporters and sponsors.
TJB was formed in 1994 and was later designated a 501(c)(3) organization. TJB was founded by the current chief executive officer Irwine G. Clare Snr.
The affiliated TJB-Philadelphia Organizing Committee was simultaneously formed.
Clare said TJB’s mission is embodied in the motto, “Our Athletes, Our Ambassadors”.
He said TJB has supported athletes and athletic programs for the past 24 years.
Clare said TJB services extend to a delegation of athletes, coaches and volunteers from Jamaica, other Caribbean countries, which includes Trinidad and Tobago and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Guyana, as well as from the USA.
In 1999, TJB became the first Jamaican organization to be a participating sponsor at the illustrious Penn Relays, Clare said.
