Silvera claims Mayor’s Special Award for outreach in MoBay

WESTERN BUREAU:

T HE GLEANER’S Janet Silvera, who has worn many hats in service to Montego Bay and the wider parish of St James, was honoured for her extensive outreach efforts with the Mayor’s Special Award during Monday’s Heroes Day Civic and Awards Ceremony in the parish.

Silvera, who is the immediate past president of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MBCCI), was saluted for her contribution to community service in St James.

She was one of four recipients of the Mayor’s Special Award, and one of 11 overall awardees during the ceremony, which was held in Sam Sharpe Square in the heart of Montego Bay.

“There is no recognition that is as critical or important as the one that you get from your own people, and that is what this is,” Silvera said, shortly after accepting the award from Montego Bay Mayor Leeroy Williams. “I am inspired even more to give back to the community, and I am really humbled and honoured that I was among the persons that the mayor felt were special today.”

Silvera added: “To get an award like this, for making the kind of contribution we have made to education and to those who are elderly, to children who are abused, and just to persons who are in need overall, it gives me that feeling of wanting to carry on continuously.”

Aside from her experiences within the MBCCI and the media landscape, Silvera has worked with the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) and is an influential hospitality writer.

HELPING THE LESS FORTUNATE

She has also sought to touch the lives of the less fortunate through her non-profit advocacy group, Sarah’s Children, which she founded in honour of her late mother, Sarah Darling-Findlay.

Over the years, Silvera has used her resources and connections to provide food, medical supplies and scholarships for children and seniors. Efforts in this vein include her helping to provide $4-million worth of computer tablets for students across Jamaica in 2021 to help them in navigating the online space when the schools were forced online by the pandemic.

She has also been closely involved with the annual MoBay City Run, a 5K/10K event which aims to give financial assistance to university students, and which she intends to resurrect next year following its stalling because of the pandemic.

“The role that I play in this city that I was born in can only get better. For me, it means going forward and finding more people in need to ensure that they get special care as well,” said Silvera. “For me, it is part of my DNA to give back to the community.”

Besides Silvera, the Mayor’s Special Award was also presented on Monday to Isiaa Madden, the managing director of Dovecot Memorial Park, for her contribution to community service. Two other recipients of the award – Horatio Campbell and Clayvian Williams – were honoured for gallantry as a result of their efforts to rescue two family members from floodwaters in a tragedy which claimed the lives of 12-year-old Jenell Walters and her grandmother Beryl Walters in April.

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com

In addition to the four recipients of the Mayor’s Special Award, the seven recipients of the Sam Sharpe Award for 2022 included:

. Lola Cunningham, for contribution to health

. Allaine Harvey, Leroy Gordon and Melvin Ottey, for contribution to community service

. Esmine Anderson and Marilyn Samuels Porter, for contribution to education

. Leacroft Lettman, for contribution to sports