The Queens-based philanthropic group Team Jamaica Bickle (TJB) said on Tuesday that it will present another 15 Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) as part of its “Defibrillator to Schools Program” in a ceremony on Friday at the JAMPRO Auditorium in Kingston, the Jamaican capital.
TJB said 13 schools, the National Stadium and The University of the West Indies (UWI) Sports Department will be presented with units.
The high schools among the recipients are: Annotto Bay, Claude McKay, Foga, Glengoffe, Glenmuir, Jose Marti, Holmwood Technical, Holy Childhood Holy Trinity, Kellits, Ocho Rios, Robert Lightbourne and William Knibb.
TJB said the presentation ceremony is dedicated in the memory of long-time TJB volunteer Nicole McFarlane, who died recently.
Since the start of the program in 2014, TJB said more than 70 schools in Jamaica have received units and more that 250 staff trained.
Twenty units were presented earlier this year to schools in Western Jamaica, TJB said.
The Jamaica National Foundation has partnered with the organization for this round of the presentations, donating five of the 15 units.
“The development of sports has always been a major area of focus for The Jamaica National Group and, therefore, our support for Team Jamaica Bickle’s efforts to equip our schools with defibrillators is only natural,” said Onyka Barrett Scott, general manager, JN Foundation.
“The nature of the program demonstrates that Team Jamaica Bickle is not merely ‘doing good’, but that it is carefully thinking about the needs of our young athletes,” she added.
“We believe these efforts will go a far way in assisting schools to manage emergencies on the field or on the track, and to provide our athletes with a high degree of assurance that we have their best interest at heart,” Barrett Scott continued.
TJB was formed in 1994 by its current chief executive officer Jamaican Irwine G. Clare, Sr. The group was later designated a 501(c)(3) organization.
TJB, whose mission is embodied in the motto, “Our Athletes, Our Ambassadors,” has, for the past 25 years, supported athletes and athletic programs for Jamaican and other Caribbean athletes competing in the prestigious Penn Relays at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
