Jamaica 60 and fundraising top agenda as Golding leads PNP on US tour
Published:Wednesday | July 13, 2022 | 3:55 PM
New York - Opposition Leader and president of the People's National Party (PNP), Mark Golding is leading a party delegation on an eight-day visit to the United States.
The visit, which officially starts Thursday, is in celebration of Jamaica's 60th anniversary of independence. A fundraising activity is among the highlights.
Golding is to hold meetings with members of the Jamaican Diaspora and deliver a lecture at Medgar Evers College in New York City.
Golding's team includes PNP General Secretary Dr Dayton Campbell; Treasurer Kisha Anderson and four other senior officials who are members of the shadow cabinet: Senators Peter Bunting and Donna Scott-Mottley and MPs Lisa Hanna and Dr Angela Brown-Burke.
The delegation will first stop in Florida where the party leader is scheduled to speak at a cultural celebration on Friday at the Miramar Cultural Center.
The group will then head to Atlanta, Georgia before going to Washington DC.
The PNP delegation have events in the Tri-State area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
On July 21, Golding will participate in the Medgar Evers lecture series where he will speak on the Caribbean diaspora's impact in the US.
A fundraising event is scheduled for Freeport, Long Island.
Golding says the contribution of the Jamaica Diaspora is significant to Jamaica's development because "during the good times and the bad you (the Diaspora) step forward to continuously support our country from wherever you are".
"When times get rough as it did during the COVID-19 pandemic, your contributions to our country, to our children and their well-being once more demonstrated in undeniable ways that no matter how near or far you are, no matter your own challenges, that you will stand up the development of Jamaica,” he said.
The Tri-State area is home to nearly one million Jamaicans with the majority residing in New York. It is estimated that more than 100-thousand Jamaicans live in Brooklyn alone.
- Lester Hinds
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