Good job!

Chairman of the Destination Assurance Council and vice-president of Palace Resorts, Clifton Reader, is pleased with the end result of Sunday’s Ocho Rios clean-up in St Ann that saw several organisations working together to boost the resort town’s image.

Held to coincide with the start of what is expected to be another good, four-month-long winter tourist season, Reader reiterated that the clean-up was for the benefit of local residents but that tourists to the town would enjoy the refreshed surroundings.

He told The Gleaner that at the end of the day, it all went well.

“It went exceptionally well. I think the organisation played out, and the majority of people showed up, from Sandals to Couples, Jamaica Bauxite Mining. People showed up and did a really, really good job. All in all, it was a very good day,” Reader said.

Reader expressed that the day might have sparked friendly competition between hotels, going forward, to see which property can do the best job maintaining zones that they have adopted.

Reader highlighted the work of Chukka, which adopted and did a good job in beautifying an island adjacent to Island Village.

“You should see [at] Island Village, what Chukka has done. That’s the standard by which we should be judged,” he pointed out.

“I think it was an excellent day, and it’s just the start of something bigger, and we just have to sustain it,” he added.

Workers began turning out just ahead of the stipulated 6 a.m. start, with work being concentrated in Ocho Rios proper, from the vicinity of Island Village in the western section to the clock tower in the centre of the town.

Teams from several hotels, banks, government organisations, including the municipal corporation, the St Ann Chamber, and other entities turned out to support the drive.

The team from Jamaica Bauxite Mining (JBM) was still busy building a picket fence alongside a section of DaCosta Drive minutes after four o’clock, with the promised outcome set to be a beautiful picture.

Donna Marie Howe, managing director at JBM, said her company had no second thoughts about supporting the initiative as one of their corporate goals is environmental social governance.

“And we believe this is one of the ways we can show our community engagement,” she said.

Howe and her team of 22, several of them skilled workers in the fields of masonry, carpentry, and electrical work, spent the entire day on the job at hand.

“We’ll come back here and maintain it even if it’s once a month. We have a plan in place to keep this ongoing,” she promised. “And once we start, other businesses and communities will get involved. We just need to make that start.”

Lorna Escoffery, chamber of commerce director and branch manager for CIBC First Caribbean, Ocho Rios, believes a good start was made.

Declaring that with Ocho Rios and St Ann, in general, being a tourist Mecca, the town must look and feel as such.

“Today was great! We did a good job, and we had an excellent turnout. The clean-up was fulfilling for us,” Escoffery told The Gleaner.

“Among other things, we cleaned the kerb, we took up the garbage and the waste and the extra vending materials, and we disposed of them. And it continues. This is not a one-time thing or one-shot. It is a continuous thing,” she added.

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