New Fortress Energy honours CRH nurses

WESTERN BUREAU:

Three nurses assigned to the Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) in Montego Bay, St James, were honoured last week as they were selected by the New Fortress Energy company (NFE) as 2021 Community Heroes for St James, in recognition of their efforts as frontline workers in the fight against COVID-19.

Departmental Nurse Manager Sheena Lindo-Kerr and registered nurses Kimberly Spence and Crystal Simmonds each received a $100,000 gift voucher, a keepsake plaque, and a personal care basket from NFE, in an appreciation ceremony held at the hospital. The awardees have been working at the CRH’s isolation wards for COVID-19 patients.

In a brief address on behalf of the awardees, Simmonds expressed immense gratitude for NFE’s gesture, which she described as unexpected.

“We are elated and surprised, and I am lost for words,” said Simmonds. “On behalf of the staff at the CRH, we just want to say a big thank you for considering us. God has been good to us and has given us the strength to persevere; and we want to say thank you from the bottom of our hearts, because we really appreciate it.”

The three nurses are among nine healthcare workers who have been selected for the NFE’s 2021 Community Heroes Award. The other seven awardees are assigned to the Linstead and Spanish Town hospitals in St Catherine, and the May Pen and Lionel Town hospitals in Clarendon.

Verona Carter, NFE’s vice-president of public affairs, said the nurses deserved to be honoured after having put their lives on the line to help patients in the battle against COVID-19. To date, Jamaica has recorded 91,578 cases of the virus since the first case was recorded last March.

“Our job today was to honour, recognise and celebrate our nurses who have been on the frontline of the battlefield with the COVID pandemic. We just want to show them our gratitude and appreciation for all the great work they have done in trying to save lives, while at the same time risking their own,” said Carter.

“They [nurses] are our community heroes, and we are grateful to be here, and to be able to select them and thank them in person for the great work they have done in helping the nation with mitigating against COVID,” added Carter.

NFE initially launched the Community Heroes Award in 2019, on the basis of the outreach work that the company has done in various communities in Clarendon, St Catherine, and St James. During the award’s first two years, community members voted for those of their peers who were seen as having done selfless deeds in their respective locations.

NFE, which supplies the liquefied natural gas used to fuel roughly half the energy needs of the national power grid, has previously performed several outreach efforts for community development and giving financial aid for education. These efforts include the provision of scholarships for tertiary-education students.