Burger KIng donates $250K to Sunshine Girls

Corporate Jamaica continues to show its growing support for the Sunshine Girls, who yesterday received another major boost in their preparations for the Netball World Cup in Australia in August, with Burger King contributing $250,000 to Netball Jamaica.

The funds will be used to assist with the Barbados series, which starts tomorrow and continues through to Sunday.

Netball Jamaica President Marva Bernard said this and other donations have helped fill the gaps in the programme, and expressed gratitude to Burger King for responding so urgently to their call for immediate assistance.

"It will be a tremendous help. When you have pockets of expenditure for a tour, you go and seek support and the minute Burger King heard that we had some needs to cover this tour, they came forward. So every dollar that we get is needed and is well-spent and I really can't express how thankful we are," she said.

Sabrena McDonald Radcliffe, Burger King sales and marketing manager, noted that they have always supported netball and will continue to do so in any way they can.

"We've supported netball competitions as far back as 2009. We've sometimes feed the girls ... and we just wrapped up an eight-week netball competition in St James that we were title sponsors of, so it's very natural, very easy, we just said let us see what the sponsorship can be.

Every likkle mek a muckle

"I know it's ($250K) not a significant amount based on the budget they have, but every 'likkle mek a muckle'. I know they want the support and we were happy we could find a way to help," she commented.

Meanwhile, Bernard said the money will be used to offset expenses for the Barbados tour and that Netball Jamaica was nearing their total budget of $63 million to participate in the World Cup.

"This (contribution) has made my life and my fundraising team's lives easier. I can see Jamaicans are really rallying around the Sunshine Girls, which is what we wanted from day one. With the tour, there are a few expenses that we have, but between now and when we leave (July 31), if we get $2 million, we will be okay," she added.

McDonald Radcliffe, added that their assistance to the team might even extend to when they get down under. "We are a franchise of Burger King and so we have close relations with other franchises in other countries. In Australia, we have a good relationship with the franchise there, they trade under 'Hungry Jack'.

"So all we ask is that they take care of our girls when they are down there. We will contact the owner there and see how they can take care of the girls on our behalf," she stated.