Holiday miracle as stolen Jamaica relief supplies recovered, shipped home

What began as a major setback for a group of volunteers in Canada has ended on a hopeful note, after a shipping container packed with hurricane relief supplies for Jamaica, stolen earlier this month, was recovered, restocked and sent to the island.

Chief organiser Isaac Laird, who is Jamaican, said the container was found a few days before Christmas Day and was shipped to Jamaica on Christmas Eve.

Laird said the group will be sending another shipment in January.

A native of Scharschmidt Prospect in Trelawny, Laird said crates containing food and clothing inside the stolen container were still intact, but tools and generators were missing.

Since the theft, someone has donated space for Laird and the other volunteers to use, and they have received many donated items.

On December 3--the day the shipping container was scheduled to be transported to the shipping company--it was stolen from a storage facility in Mississauga, Ontario.

It was found by police in York Region on December 19.

As soon as the containers arrive in Jamaica and are ready to be stripped, approximately 25 volunteers will fly to the island in February to clear them and distribute packages to people adversely affected by Hurricane Melissa.

The group wants the people they are helping in Jamaica to receive the supplies as soon as possible.

Laird said his family and friends in Trelawny were impacted by the hurricane.

Giving back is not new to Laird, 66, who immigrated to Canada at age 12 and has been supporting his community in Trelawny for 20 years by coordinating back-to-school initiatives.

Shunning the limelight of traditional and social media, the leading figure of the five-member group said his family has been very supportive of the effort to send items to Trelawny.

He and his team have also offered space inside the second shipping container to people who want to send barrels with relief items to Jamaica.

- Neil Armstrong

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