'Thank you Marlon' - Student grateful for school fee gift

When Garfield Mitchell first learnt that the Marlon Samuels Foundation, Sammy Vision, would be paying for the remainder of his schooling this year, he jumped on his mother and said, "Thank you Jesus! I can finally finish school."

Mitchell was presented with a cheque for $350,000 at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston yesterday.

"I feel like I reach somewhere already because now I am sure that I will be able to finish school," Mitchell said after collecting his cheque. "I want to thank Mr Marlon Samuels for reaching out and helping me."

Overwhelmed

Mitchell, a visually impaired first-year student at Church Teachers' College, was on the brink of dropping out of school after his tuition fees had overwhelmed him.

"If it wasn't for Mr Marlon Samuels I wouldn't be going to school in January because I didn't have the money, and I have been praying and God answered my prayers," Mitchell said.

Marlon Samuels was moved by Mitchell's story which appeared in THE STAR last week.

"You don't have to have a foundation like this to make a contribution, sometimes we can just stop and have a conversation with a person on the road," Samuels said.

President of the Jamaica Society for the Blind, Damion McLean, said that a portion of the contribution will be used to help visually impaired persons to become self-employable.

"A contribution of this magnitude can go a far way in terms of doing things like helping the visually impaired to become self- employable, to make use of the creative industries and make their contribution to the Jamaican landscape," McLean said.