When $10m wasn’t enough

MONTEGO BAY, St James — An overwhelming wave of requests for assistance from students and schools across western Jamaica has driven this year’s Jill Stewart MoBay City Run payout well beyond its $10-million target to more than $17 million.

“Ten million dollars became $17 million, not because we changed the target, but because the need changed us,” founder and chair of the charity event, Janet Silvera, told last Friday’s scholarship presentation at S Hotel in Montego Bay.

The expanded programme is expected to benefit more than 6,000 students, including some attending secondary school, as well as institutions recovering from Hurricane Melissa which ravaged the western parishes last October.