Honorary consul to attend local Portland festival
Published:Monday | April 29, 2024 | 12:11 AMGareth Davis Sr/Gleaner Writer
Port Antonio, Portland
The annual Portland Paradise Weekend of activities has received a major boost following confirmation that the honorary consul of Jamaica in Atlanta, Dr Elaine Grant Bryan, will be the keynote speaker at the “festival in the park” event.
Bryan, who will be visiting Portland for the first time, along with her team, will be the guest of the event promoter, Eunice ‘Vicky’ Rashford, whose dream weekend event will run from August 2 to August 5. The event, which has been fully endorsed by the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) and East Portland Member of Parliament, Ann-Marie Vaz, is also a major income earner for operators of varied businesses.
“This year I have managed to attract the presence of the honorary consul of Jamaica in Atlanta to our pristine event right here in Portland, which is the most popular event on the eastern side of the island,” commented Rashford.
“I am a proud Portlander who believes in my country and my parish of birth, and Dr Bryan will be an integral part of our back-to-school donations for the children of Port Antonio and surrounding areas, which to some extent will kick-start the celebrations. Portland Paradise is a multifaceted event which provides entertainment, excursions, promotes culture, and engaged in community building.
“The event is marked as an economic booster for the parish, which caters for residents, islanders, and tourist alike. I am grateful to [Tourism] Minister Edmund Bartlett and his team at the JTB for their endorsement, which guarantees us space and relevance on the global stage. This event also provides valuable income, especially in foreign exchange, to hoteliers, supermarket operators, Boston jerk pork vendors, restaurant, the cane man, and also the person selling jelly (water coconut) on the street,” she added.
Rashford, a past student of Titchfield High School, in the parish, is a former educator of the New York City Board of Education and an aviation professional with more than 17 years of service with her current employer, Delta Airlines.
In 2016 she launched the Portland Paradise Weekend as an entertainment event, but has since revealed that her goal is not only to attract islanders and tourists to Portland, but to also create economic opportunities for the people of the parish in a more sustainable way.
It is against that background that Rashford is calling for more to be done in marketing Portland as a safe destination, a place for entertainment, relaxation, and for economic growth.