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'I believe in angels'
Published: Sunday | December 14, 2008
Photos by Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
Mother and son, Veveta and Alvin Edwards. Odette Dyer responded to the mother's plea for help to send her son to the Global Young Leaders Conference in the United States in July. Avia Collinder, Gleaner Writer
After what Odette Dyer of Montego Bay did for her son, Veveta Edwards of Big Lane in Central Village, St Catherine, states, "I believe that there are true angels walking among us here on earth. I have proof of that."
Dyer was the woman who answered her plea to send her son, Alvin Edwards, a student of Campion College, to the Global Young Leaders Conference in the United States this past summer.
Lifetime experience
In July, the young man - boarding an airplane for the first time and staying at the Sheraton Hotel in Washington and Manhattan College in New York - enjoyed the company of many students from around the world during [COLOR=orange ! important][COLOR=orange ! important]leadership[/COLOR][/COLOR] seminars, and visited places which many Jamaicans have only seen on [COLOR=orange ! important][COLOR=orange ! important]television[/COLOR][/COLOR].
"What Mrs Dyer did for my son will last him a lifetime. He went to a place that, before, was only a dream," Mrs Edwards states.
Alvin is a high-performing student at Campion College who, at the end of fifth form, secured 10 subjects with five distinctions and five credits in the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) Ordinary Level examinations. For the sixth former, who now has his sights set on being a computer engineer, his mother wants the best of everything.
Alvin had brought much pleasure into Mrs Edwards' life with his constant achievements, which ranged from Sunday school to the classroom.
But, in 2007 when Alvin first received the invitation to attend the Global Young Leaders Conference, she threw away the letter as she did not have the money to send him.
In 2008, the letter came again.
The programme promised to expand her son's cultural awareness and "cultivate inherent leadership skills" during interaction with top students of more than 100 countries.
He would also visit foreign embassies, "meet high-ranking diplomatic officials, participate in cultural exchanges and retrace the footsteps of former rulers during visits to historic seats of power".
For Mrs Edwards of Big Lane, the desire on her son's face when he read about the programme was torture. She recalls, "This time, I did not throw the letter away."
Edwards wrote to Betty Ann Blaine on NationwideRadio, who read the letter on air.
According to Dyer, wife of former hotelier and current tourism consultant Godfrey Dyer, "I was home one morning and my husband listens to these talk shows so I tuned in. Betty Ann Blaine came on and I heard the latter part of a letter she was reading. The family was from inner-city St Catherine and the son was going to Campion. I thought, 'how good that an inner-city child had gotten into Campion'.
"He had gotten accepted to go to this programme abroad and the mother was pleading. I am involved in finding scholarships for children and am very passionate about education. It is what is going to move this country forward. There is so much talent in Jamaica, and some of these kids only need the opportunity."
does well in school and in the community.
http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/glean.../out/out1.html
Published: Sunday | December 14, 2008
Photos by Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
Mother and son, Veveta and Alvin Edwards. Odette Dyer responded to the mother's plea for help to send her son to the Global Young Leaders Conference in the United States in July. Avia Collinder, Gleaner Writer
After what Odette Dyer of Montego Bay did for her son, Veveta Edwards of Big Lane in Central Village, St Catherine, states, "I believe that there are true angels walking among us here on earth. I have proof of that."
Dyer was the woman who answered her plea to send her son, Alvin Edwards, a student of Campion College, to the Global Young Leaders Conference in the United States this past summer.
Lifetime experience
In July, the young man - boarding an airplane for the first time and staying at the Sheraton Hotel in Washington and Manhattan College in New York - enjoyed the company of many students from around the world during [COLOR=orange ! important][COLOR=orange ! important]leadership[/COLOR][/COLOR] seminars, and visited places which many Jamaicans have only seen on [COLOR=orange ! important][COLOR=orange ! important]television[/COLOR][/COLOR].
"What Mrs Dyer did for my son will last him a lifetime. He went to a place that, before, was only a dream," Mrs Edwards states.
Alvin is a high-performing student at Campion College who, at the end of fifth form, secured 10 subjects with five distinctions and five credits in the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) Ordinary Level examinations. For the sixth former, who now has his sights set on being a computer engineer, his mother wants the best of everything.
Alvin had brought much pleasure into Mrs Edwards' life with his constant achievements, which ranged from Sunday school to the classroom.
But, in 2007 when Alvin first received the invitation to attend the Global Young Leaders Conference, she threw away the letter as she did not have the money to send him.
In 2008, the letter came again.
The programme promised to expand her son's cultural awareness and "cultivate inherent leadership skills" during interaction with top students of more than 100 countries.
He would also visit foreign embassies, "meet high-ranking diplomatic officials, participate in cultural exchanges and retrace the footsteps of former rulers during visits to historic seats of power".
For Mrs Edwards of Big Lane, the desire on her son's face when he read about the programme was torture. She recalls, "This time, I did not throw the letter away."
Edwards wrote to Betty Ann Blaine on NationwideRadio, who read the letter on air.
According to Dyer, wife of former hotelier and current tourism consultant Godfrey Dyer, "I was home one morning and my husband listens to these talk shows so I tuned in. Betty Ann Blaine came on and I heard the latter part of a letter she was reading. The family was from inner-city St Catherine and the son was going to Campion. I thought, 'how good that an inner-city child had gotten into Campion'.
"He had gotten accepted to go to this programme abroad and the mother was pleading. I am involved in finding scholarships for children and am very passionate about education. It is what is going to move this country forward. There is so much talent in Jamaica, and some of these kids only need the opportunity."
does well in school and in the community.
http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/glean.../out/out1.html