An annual event by Castlegar’s Jamaican community next month will benefit the Stanley Humphries Secondary hot meals program.
Organizer Basil Fuller told city council this week he is hoping to raise about $5,000 through the Can Jam Link-up, to be held at Kinnaird Park on Sunday, July 2 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. It will feature Jamaican cuisine and music as well as games for kids.
Fuller said the cause is close to his heart, as both his parents were school headmasters in Jamaica and regularly spent their own earnings to provide food for kids. His mother would buy 100 pounds of flour, sugar, and rice, and he and his sister would help parcel it out.
“No child can learn on a hungry stomach,” he said. “We would pack up that food and go around to schools. My mom knew every student in school by name and who had and who didn’t.”
Previous link-ups have been held since 2017, with Fuller taking care of costs without assistance. He said there is another key reason for holding them.
“Just to show the community at large there’s a growing Jamaican community here and we are a lively and vibrant people and we help each other,” he said. “We like our music, our food.
“When I got here a lot of people felt intimidated by us. We needed to forge that relationship with them. We are not here as a people to take away anything. We are here to help to build Canada.”
Fuller said he came to this country because he wanted a better future for his kids.
“In Jamaica, I used to haul ammunition for the government, among other things. That was my main job for years. I know what a warhead travelling two thousand miles an hour can do to someone.”
He said many people in Jamaica were oppressed but his grandfather was a politician and he was born into a privileged home. Still, his father pointed out that while his mother’s side of the family was poor, they were more closely-knit.
“He said it is good to live a financially-viable life, but it is more important the things you do in life. Money doesn’t make you a man, it’s the footsteps you leave in life.”
Fuller works for Mercer Celgar and is a truck driver. He also volunteers as an instructor at Mountain Transport Institute.
He said last year’s event had a decent turnout despite rain and raised about $1,200 for Camp Koolaree, where Fuller has volunteered the past three years. What was left of the non-perishable food from the event was also donated.
