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Moon Palace Foundation awards $4m in scholarships

Published:Saturday | October 17, 2020 | 12:09 AMCarl Gilchrist/Gleaner Writer
Fiona Morrison-Martin (left), collects a new Lenovo laptop from Foundation Coordinator Talcia Peart-Peters. Morrison-Martin’s daughter, Kashera, won the laptop which was donated through the efforts of Diana Winters and the Canadian Travel agents. Morriso
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Fiona Morrison-Martin (left), collects a new Lenovo laptop from Foundation Coordinator Talcia Peart-Peters. Morrison-Martin’s daughter, Kashera, won the laptop which was donated through the efforts of Diana Winters and the Canadian Travel agents. Morrison-Martin is one of several staff members whose children benefit from the annual Moon Palace Foundation scholarships.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic wreaking havoc on Jamaica’s tourism sector, one of the island’s leading all-inclusive resorts, Moon Palace Jamaica, is recommitting to stand by its pledge to offer annual scholarships through its charity arm, Moon Palace Foundation.

In fact, not only has Moon Palace Foundation continued its scholarship awards this year, they have increased the number of beneficiaries and value of the grants.

“Moon Palace Jamaica recognises that, with the COVID 19 pandemic, now more than ever people need assistance. And so, despite the serious challenges facing the tourism sector, we are committed to standing by our promise to honour our scholarship programme,” Natalie Boreland, general manager, Moon Palace Foundation, told The Gleaner on Thursday.

“Not only have we renewed the 16 scholarship recipients from previous years, but we have also awarded 12 new scholarships this year,” she added.

The scholarships granted to each recipient continue for the duration of their respective programmes and cover one third of the cost of tuition and other related costs.

The Moon Palace Foundation started awarding the scholarships in 2016 to benefit staff members, children of staff members and members of the St Ann community, with an initial amount of $430,933 for seven recipients.

With this year’s allocation of $4.1 million for the 28 recipients, the total amount awarded since inception stands at more than $11.7 million.

The 28 scholarships disbursed this year are broken down as follows:

Ten awardees are staff members from various departments at the hotel, with eight of them beginning their course of study this year, while nine are children of staff members, with eight of them being new recipients.

Four awardees are from the community and began their courses in 2019, while five awardees are children from the Caribbean Christian School for the Deaf in Manchester, who continue to receive a grant for the academic year.

“The scholarships cover amounts from as low as $67,680 up to $600,000 per recipient enrolled in institutions such as the Moneague College, The University of the West Indies, University of Technology, Jamaica, Northern Caribbean University, University of the Commonwealth Caribbean, Brown’s Town Community College and SPACS College for Paramedical Studies,” Boreland disclosed.