Vybz Kartel’s local Christmas partnership drive a success

NIGEL TELES­FORD

GML Cor­re­spon­dent

Scores of moth­ers and chil­dren gath­ered at Amer­i­can Stores’ St James branch from 12:30 pm on Fri­day, as the Help Me Help You Foun­da­tion—in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Vy­bz Kar­tel, the One Caribbean Uni­ty Fes­ti­val and Amer­i­can Stores—shared Christ­mas hams, light re­fresh­ments, toys, cloth­ing and ap­pli­ances for sev­er­al hours, while the al­lot­ment of items last­ed un­til around 3:30 pm.

Amer­i­can Stores’ Man­ag­ing Di­rec­tor, Amir May­bo­di said he was hap­py to help so many peo­ple and thrilled to part­ner with Ja­maican star, Vy­bz Kar­tel.

Jamila Philip, in white, takes a photo with Santa Claus, Help Me Help You Foundation Director, Ornella Luces and American Stores’ Managing Director, Amir Maybodi, as she collected a new fridge at the furniture store’s St James branch on Friday 20 December 2024. [Image by NIGEL TELESFORD]

NIGEL TELESFORD

“He is one of my favourite en­ter­tain­ers of all time,” May­bo­di said. “So, when he agreed to part­ner with us to give back to the fans and to the wider com­mu­ni­ty, it was a no-brain­er. Ms Or­nel­la or­gan­ised every­thing and co­or­di­nat­ed the day per­fect­ly.”

Help Me Help You Foun­da­tion Di­rec­tor, Or­nel­la Luces de­scribed the event as “a re­sound­ing suc­cess” and called on oth­er artistes and cor­po­rate part­ners to do more for their com­mu­ni­ties.

Santa Claus presents toys and clothing to children assembled at American Stores in St James during the “Christmas Cheer” event hosted by the Help Me Help You Foundation, in collaboration with Vybz Kartel, American Stores and the One Caribbean Unity Festival, on Friday 20 December 2024. [Image by NIGEL TELESFORD]

NIGEL TELESFORD

“It made us so hap­py to help so many peo­ple to­day and to see the smiles on the chil­dren’s faces while al­so giv­ing some hope to their par­ents,” Luces told Guardian Me­dia. “We will def­i­nite­ly want to do it again next year and hope­ful­ly for many more years to come, so we hope that oth­er artistes will sup­port, and oth­er cor­po­rate en­ti­ties will jump on board to as­sist as well.

She added: “We all know how hard the times are and how chal­lenged most peo­ple and es­pe­cial­ly par­ents are to make ends meet, so we want to en­cour­age and help fa­cil­i­tate those who are do­ing well to help those who are not and re­al­ly make a dif­fer­ence.”

Amer­i­can Stores em­ploy­ee, Michael Lemaitre trad­ed his work uni­form for a San­ta Clause suit and pre­sent­ed toys and clothes to the chil­dren, as their par­ents lined up and wait­ed for ap­pli­ances such as ket­tles, toast­ers, blenders and a few stoves and fridges.

Help Me Help You Foundation Director, Ornella Luces and American Stores’ Managing Director, Amir Maybodi, have a chat during their “Christmas Cheer” event held in collaboration with Jamaican star, Vybz Kartel and the One Caribbean Unity Festival. [Image by NIGEL TELESFORD]

NIGEL TELESFORD

Luces es­ti­mat­ed that just un­der two hun­dred per­sons came to the store where over $100,000 worth of mer­chan­dise was dis­trib­uted, in­clud­ing a bed and some cash for a moth­er whose house was re­cent­ly de­stroyed in a fire.

“She was not on our list, but she came ear­ly and brought all her doc­u­ments to show us what hap­pened,” Luces re­port­ed, “but she was cry­ing al­so from telling and re-liv­ing the ex­pe­ri­ence and didn’t want to be on cam­era or in pho­tos.”

“Next year, we’re gonna have to make it big­ger and bet­ter with more stuff for the chil­dren,” she said, “’cause plen­ty chil­dren came and got bored wait­ing, so we need to get snacks and en­ter­tain­ment for them.”