Stolen container of hurricane relief supplies found, shipped to Jamaica

The year is ending on a positive note for a group of volunteers who, in early December, was alarmed by the theft of a shipping container with relief supplies destined for Jamaica at a storage facility in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.

Isaac Laird said the container was found a few days before Christmas, after which they shipped it to the island on Christmas Eve. They will be sending another shipment on January 6.

A native of Scharschmidt Prospect in Trelawny, Laird said the crates with food and clothes were still intact, but the tools and generators were missing from the container.

Since the theft, someone donated a space for Laird and the other volunteers to use and they have received many donated items.

As soon as the shipments arrive in Jamaica and are ready to be stripped, approximately 25 volunteers will fly there in February to clear them and distribute packages themselves to people adversely affected by Hurricane Melissa.

Giving back is not new to Laird, 66, who immigrated to Canada at the age of 12 and has been supporting his community in Trelawny for 20 years by coordinating back-to-school initiatives.

Shunning the limelight of traditional and social media, the leading figure of the group of five said his family has been very supportive of the venture to send goods to Trelawny. They want the people they are helping in Jamaica to get the supplies as soon as possible.

Laird said his family and friends in Trelawny were impacted by the hurricane. He and his team have offered to include, in the second shipping container, barrels that people in their neighbourhood who are donors may want to send to family in Jamaica.

The selfless volunteer said everything that he has been doing to support people in Jamaica is not to highlight himself and his efforts.

He described Scharschmidt Prospect as small and the poorest district amid the larger surrounding districts of Duncans, Spicy Hill, and Samuel Prospect.

He said while all the other districts would have graduates who became teachers or doctors, his district had none.

TIGHT-KNIT DISTRICT

“I don’t remember any of us going to any big high school, so most people leave high school and they go learn to be [an] electrician, plumber, mason or carpenter. It was a tight-knit community,” he said.

The avid football player and cricketer used to buy footballs, trophies and jerseys and send them to Jamaica. He said he has never stopped, and even found ways to invite people to donate, and they provided books and bags.

Laird said Hurricane Melissa tore off many zinc roofs in Scharschmidt Prospect.

“In the containers, there is everything other than zinc to help put roofs back on,” said Laird, who works in construction and, on previous visits to his childhood community, shared advice on how to build better.

He thinks zinc nail should be prohibited in Jamaica because it is one of the reasons why many roofs were destroyed by the hurricane. He advocates for the use of screws instead, which, he noted, would result in less damage because they are harder to be loosened than nails.

A GoFundMe set up by the Logwood Walk Charity Foundation after the shipping container was stolen has raised US$867; its goal is CDN$50,000.

Deondra Duncan posted on the site that the dedicated group of volunteers has spent years organising charity events, back-to-school drives, and community outreach initiatives in Jamaica.

Duncan said that through the generosity of supporters, they amassed “over $300,000 worth of food, clothing, shoes, generators, tools, building materials, and more – all packed and ready to be shipped to Jamaica”.

On December 3, the day the shipping container was scheduled to be transported to the shipping company, it was stolen from a storage facility in Mississauga, Ontario. It was found by the police in York Region on December 19.

editorial@gleanerjm.com