Good showing for Sunset River Run 5K charity - Proceeds towards the Black River Hospital
Published:Thursday | January 15, 2015 | 12:50 PMLauntia Cuff
BLACK RIVER, St Elizabeth:
IN ADDITION to promoting commerce in the town of Black River with an aim of revitalising the town, the St Elizabeth Chamber of Commerce, Black River Chapter, also sees a need for giving back to the community. With this in mind, the chamber hosted its first charity event, the Sunset River Run 5K, last Sunday. This event was held in order to raise money for the Black River Hospital.
David Morris, first vice-president of the chamber, said the hospital was selected because of the great need that exists there and the impact it would have on the community. He added that not only was the event hosted for charity, but it was also aimed at promoting health and fitness.
Morris said despite the improvements that have taken place over the years at the facility, there is still a shortage of equipment, and it was the aim of the chamber to provide some of the necessary tools for saving lives.
"Black River Hospital is a historic institution that has been serving St Elizabeth (and surrounding parishes) for over 200 years. Despite improvements in the infrastructure and staffing at the hospital over the years, we believe our charity needs support to acquire specific pieces of equipment to facilitate proper health-care delivery.
"These pieces of equipment we are told, include ECG machines, blood pressure machines and portable suction machines," Morris explained.
GT Taylor, president of the chamber, said the event was a success and that it was the hope of the chamber to host the event annually.
"The event was a success of course, for the first one, a new event. A lot of people came from all over the place to participate. We had a good showing of people from in and around the communities, even along the route cheering on the [participants]," he said.
ANNUAL EVENT
"It will be an annual event. We are trying to address other charities as we go forward. Whatever we [have gotten], we are going to do what we can do for the hospital. We are hoping that we can do something significant or make a start to something significant. The hospital is there for all of us, you can never tell when you need the hospital no matter what money you have, no matter the status. We think that it is very important for us to assist the hospital," Taylor told Rural Xpress.
He said if persons wanted to contribute to the hospital they could contact the Chamber as a fund has been created for assisting the health-care facility.
"We are calling on all business people. You don't have to wait on the event to contribute. You can contact us at the chamber. We have a fund set up for the hospital. We have [made] the hospital our main charity, so there's a fund that we will be giving to the hospital on a regular basis," Taylor said.