New York – Brooklyn College Performing Arts Center is set to come alive with the sweet sounds of reggae music this April as Team Jamaica Bickle, the New York- based formed some fourteen years ago to assist our athletes from Jamaica who participates at the Penn Relays, hosts the concert event of the year – `Team Jamaica on the Road to Beijing.`
The event is set for Sunday April 20, 2008 at 2900 Campus Road Brooklyn, New York 11210 from 7 p.m. and aims to funds to assist with TJB’s support of Jamaicans athletes at the Penn Relays and its scholarship fund that aids Jamaican runners across the region.
This year, according to TJB founder Irwine Clare, a donation in honor of the late Olympian, Jamaica’s Herb McKenley, will be made to aid athletes preparing for the Olympics.
Clare urged Jamaican nationals to support the event, stressing that it’s not an ordinary promotion aimed at pocketing personal cash but a patriotic venture targeted to help boost Jamaican athletes participating at the Penn Relays and in the Beijing Olympics.
`Jamaican nationals who get joy in seeing their flags at Penn and at the Olympics need to support this event since it is a direct way of helping the athletes and supporters who make the journey all possible,` added Clare.
The concert will be presented under the Patronage of Jamaica’s new Ambassador to Washington, Anthony Johnson while Donald Quarrie Jamaica’s most eminent Olympian, will be among the special guest.
Supporters for the endeavor include the Jamaica Amateur Athletics Association and VP Records.
“This year the challenges for TJB are more difficult as more is expected of us and as such we have to become more creative in our fund raising endeavors,” commented Clare, when asked about the reason behind the concert. “TJB is assisted annually by a core of volunteers who work assiduously to ensure that ‘our athletes, our ambassadors’ are housed, fed, transported and assisted in a manner consistent with their stature.
Additionally, TJB also provides assistance to athletes on immigration issues, tuition, medical and other issues. To be able to satisfy these requests we must raise funds and this is done by solicitations, sponsorships and general contributions from the community. In deed this a very daunting task but nonetheless a necessary one.”
Annual corporate include Caribbean Foods Delight, The Vincent Hosang Family Foundation, VMBS, Jamaica Tourist Board, Grace Foods, the Union of Jamaican Alumni Associations, Western Union and Tower Isle Patties among others.
