The Treasure Beach Women's Group is in anguish along with the entire world over the plight of Haiti and its citizens. This could easily have happened to Jamaica.

Once again we are blessed. When Jamaica was devastated by Hurricane Ivan, and other hurricanes that followed, the world came to our
aid. It is time for us to help our neighbour Haiti.

Treasure Beach Women's Group will be hosting along with other community organizations, businesses, and interested persons, a fund raising drive. During this event we will be going door to door throughout Treasure Beach collecting money to donate to helping Haiti recover.

A meeting will be held on Monday January 18, 2010 at 1:00 PM, at TBWG on Old Wharf Road to organize this event:

TREASURE BEACH WALKS FOR HAITI¯

SATURDAY, JANUARY 23, 2010

Starting at 6:30 AM

Interested parties are invited to attend this meeting.

This is one of the times that we should all be able to come together to help those unable to helps themselves due to the devastating earthquake that recently affected Haiti. Please contact Susan Ebanks at Treasure Beach Women's Group at 965-3878, or Celeste Anderson at 965-3895.

Please also inform your family, friends and business associates that we will be going door to door to take donations early on Saturday morning January 23, 2010.

We thank you in advance for your support for this most important project. Please call Susan Ebanks or Celeste Anderson if you require additional information.

Marblue is on your site-Celeste we will meet you monday,sending mails to all our customers

The Treasure Beach Community Walks for Haiti

This Saturday, January 23 starting at 8:00 a.m. at the Treasure Beach Women’s Group.

We Need volunteers and donations

• Come out to the Women’s Group Saturday morning at 8:00 a.m. to walk with us and help collect.

• Or open your doors to us when we come knocking.

• If you have a vehicle, especially with a sound system, and can provide transportation and entertainment, call us!

• If you have money, clothes, toiletries, canned goods, whatever . . . have them ready when we come knocking on Saturday.

• All help is needed and appreciated!

The Treasure Beach Women’s Group will be collecting at the group house starting immediately so please stop by with any donation. No donation is too large!

Remember the generosity shown to us by so many during our times of need and pay it forward!

Contact: TBWG 965-3878 or 455-0885 with any questions or for more information.

Just a reminder to all those living in Treasure Beach (or are going to be talking to anyone from here) - we'll be knocking on doors on Saturday morning and would appreciate anything you can give.

Please pass the word on to your neighbors!

How did the collection go? To which charity in Haiti is the money collected being sent?

I think the best way to describe yesterday and the response the community of Treasure Beach gave to the Walk for Haiti was overwhelming. At least that is the word I heard most from those who volunteered to walk and drive around Treasure Beach collecting.

The community came out in full force to help in many many capacities. Every business, household, individual did what they could to help. Yesterday exceeded everyone's expectations and on behalf of the TBWG, we all say THANK YOU to our wonderful community!

Many started to gather at the TBWG group house at 8 a.m. by 8:30 we were all designated an area of TB to cover and one or more drivers to go along with the walkers to pick up goods. By 12:00 noon everyone was back and brimming with stories of kindness and generosity.

As one of the "walkers" I was so pleased to see the amount of persons waiting for us to come around with cash, clothes and food items. We came to houses where no one was home but a bag of clothes was left on the verandah for us to collect. The amount of children who came to us putting in their coins as contribution was unbelievable. We came to one small house where a gentleman stood on his verandah and apologized for not having any money to contribute but said he had a few clothes, then proceeded to carry out 5 large bags of clothes! One little girl told us she had gone through all her clothes and packed up everything that didn't fit her anymore. Bones left the Women's Group about 1 in the afternoon to go home and came back 20 minutes later with several more bags of clothes saying folks had them all lined up on the road waiting for him to come and collect them from morning! Just unbelievable.

Originally, one of the Women's Group members, Denise, had volunteered to bring the clothes we collected to the ODPEM office in Kingston where they are collecting clothes for Haiti. As we've collected what would add up to be at least 4 - 5 van loads of clothes, we are now thinking of bringing them to the Scotia Bank in Black River where they have organized someone to collect clothes for Haiti as well.

There are contribution boxes set up at local businesses who will continue to collect cash donations for the rest of the week. You can bring your clothes or food items to the Women's Group house for the rest of the week as well.

Next Saturday we will wrap up the drive and report on the final tally of what was collected and where it will be donated. There will be a meeting this week to finalize plans for where the money will be donated but I know there has been talk of donating the money to the same organizations which helped Treasure Beach out the most after Ivan and Dean.

One thing is for sure, Treasure Beach was grateful to have an opportunity to help our neighbors in Haiti even if in a small way. We've been the recipients of kindess and generosity in the past and now it was our time to pay it forward. We also feel so very blessed to know this time we were able to be the ones to give instead of having to be the ones to receive.

On behalf of the many participants, volunteers and the TBWG Thank you Treasure Beach!



You can view more photos here or by the link in the Photo Gallery

This really brings tears to my eyes. I cannot watch CNN for very long because it just breaks my heart. Kudos to TB for their generosity and kindness.

Well done TB community!!!

After some discussion and careful consideration the TBWG has decided to donated the clothes to the Salvation Army. We have found out that Scotia Bank is only accepting food items and no longer accepting clothing. The Caribbean Salvation Army is sending clothes and food items directly from Jamaica to Haiti which the link will further explain. http://www.salvationarmy.org/ihq/www_sa.nsf/vw-news/55EC0B16DCFCAFA3802576B70050 3157?opendocument (check the last few paragraphs in the article). Parchment Hardware donate the use of a truck to pick up the items today to bring them to the Top Hill branch of Salvation Army where a larger Salvation Army truck will be coming on Saturday to bring the items to their headquarters where the clothes will be shipped out. The remaining items which we are still collecting we will be sure to bring up to Top Hill by Saturday morning.

We have made the decision to donate the funds (the total amount collected will be given to you on Saturday when all the donations are in) to the organization of Food For the Poor for two reasons. 1. Their efforts in Haiti are already evident as this article shows. http://www.foodforthepoor.org/newsroom/news/1200-tons-of-relief-haiti.html They also state that 96% of all monetary donations make it to their destination. 2. We know Food For the Poor is an effective agency as they have helped many of us in Treasure Beach over the years, especially immediately after Hurricanes Ivan and Dean. They were the first releif agency to bring us water, food, zinc, and other needed supplies. We have been the recipients of their good works and now it is our turn to help out someone else through them. Once we have collected all the funds we will present Food For the Poor with a check from the Treasure Beach Community. We will let you know when this happens.

Again, thank you Treasure Beach for the generosity you have shown.

Great ideas for where to donate the clothing and money, TBWG. Food for the Poor has done quite a lot for Treasure Beach over the years, and now we have an opportunity to help them.

We are very pleased and proud to inform you the community of Treasure Beach has raised $207,758.68 JA which will be donated towards the Haiti relief effort.

In addition, a panel truck load of clothes have been donated to the Salvation Army and we have a carload of clothes to still deliver.

We will be settling the details of handing the check over to Food for the Poor this week and will keep you informed.

Thank you - Thank you to all who participated!!!

At US$1 to $JA90 the total raised is over $2300. Big thanks to TBWG for doing the work and bigger thanks to all who donated.

The second load of clothes was delivered to the Salvation Army yesterday. What was interesting is the Captain of the St. Elizabeth chapter of the Salvation Army is from Haiti. He was sent to Haiti last week to spend a month there assisting with the relief effort. His wife Mrs. Pierre greeted us yesterday and could not stop saying "Thank you". She told us she has family there who are all physically okay but are now on the streets as their homes were ruined.

Well done, TBWG! There, but for fortune, go we.
Respect.

We were absolutely honored to have the Public Relations Officer, Petri-Ann Henry, and the CEO, Ryan Peralto, from Food for the Poor come to the Treasure Beach Women's Group house on Saturday so we could present them with a check from the money we collected from the Walk for Haiti.

Both Mr. Peralto and Ms. Henry had been to Haiti last weekend. We all sat rivoted to our seats hearing of their experiences and what they witnessed. They also brought along a CD filled with photos from their visit. We were reminded very clearly of how blessed we are and of how much help our neighbors will be needing for a great deal of time to come.

It was a proud moment for the Treasure Beach community and the Treasure Beach Women's Group when we were able to present Food for the Poor with a check for $206,911.50!

As Food for the Poor gave the TBWG our first house, gave many members of the community a board house, gave some fishermen a boat, and came to the rescue of the entire community after Ivan bringing us food, zinc, and building supplies, it was appropriate for us to choose Food for the Poor as the recipient of the funds collected. They have proven to us that this organization is effective.

Big up to the whole of the Treasure Beach community for coming out in full force to support this effort. Everyone's expectations were exceeded just proving, once again, what a great community we live in.



You can view photos from Saturday here or by the link in the Photo Gallery

My name is Suzette and i am from Haiti.Simone told me about you guys, I really apprecite TB for all the work and the thoughts that you have for the Haitians people in Haiti. we heard a lot about you guys and we all Haitians people in Canada really appreciate for all the work that you guys doing in Jamaica so we are very thankful for that.May the lord bless you all.

Great going TB.What a wonderful display of love and compassion towards the people of Haiti.May God continue to prosper you and may your light continue to shine!!!

This is an awesome story coming out of Treasure Beach.. Keep the good news coming.

In the vein of full disclosure, you may see a difference in the amount collected and the check amount give to Food for the Poor. We had collected some US coins. When we tried to deposit them into the TBWG account the bank said we would get a very very low rate of exchange for them ($32 JA to $1US), so they suggested we deposit the coins into the US account they had set up for Haiti relief. So we deposited $13 US into that account.

This is awesome. Continued Blessings as you work for the Lord.