More ‘cool’ gifts for blind couple and kid
Published:Wednesday | December 9, 2020 | 12:22 AMRasbert Turner/Gleaner Writer
Six-year-old Alia Walker beamed with joy as she put her hands on her new tablet as the charity sparked by a viral Gleaner video stirred corporate Jamaica to assist the daughter of a blind couple who have stolen the hearts of readers and viewers for weeks.
Alia is the daughter of Dwayne and Staniece Taylor-Walker, a blind couple whose love story and humble circumstances have touched the nation.
The Constant Spring Primary student, whose parents live in the gritty Spanish Town community of Ellerslie Pen, is optimistic that she will improve in online classes which have become a stape of life in coronavirus-hit Jamaica.
The act of benevolence came courtesy of ATL, which gifted the family with a Samsung tablet and mini fridge that Dwayne said, good-humouredly, was a “cool” gift for Christmas.
“This is the first of the ATL Light up Your World Christmas promotions, and we are very pleased to be here. To see the smiles on their faces makes it even more meaningful,” ATL marketing specialist Amalea Jones told The Gleaner.
Jones said that ATL was thrilled to bring good cheer to the central St Catherine community and is expected to continue the drive throughout the island.
During the visit, Dwayne Walker, 34, smiled broadly as he received Prizm Mini Bar refrigerator.
“Bwoy, I am really thankful. Once more, mi get an early Christmas,” Walker said to hearty laughter.
He disclosed that he could now set aside the igloo that had long been his saviour.
“Mi can stop buy di $50 ice and have fi mi own, as mi get a new fridge,” Walker said.
“Sometimes our meats and juice spoil, as there is no fridge inside the house. Sometimes even my daughter wants something cool, and if we don’t buy bag juice or something else, she remains thirsty.”
The gesture was well received by the community, as residents offered to hoist speaker boxes, liquor, tables, and chairs to allow the team entry to the Walkers’ home.
“Bruno a good youth, and if him a get help, it’s all good,” said the selector, referring to Dwayne’s nickname, before clearing the narrow path.
The donation followed the reroofing of the Walkers’ home last week by volunteers after good Samaritan Robert Salmon, an ex-soldier who now lives in New Jersey, funded the intervention after being moved by the family’s plight.