CUMI focused on new mandate after Hurricane Melissa disruptions last year

CUMI treasurer Debbie Leouw (right) looks on as Jamaica Golf Association President Jodi Munn-Barrow (left) and director of golf at The Tryall Club Ewan Peebles check the scores of the golfers during the Tryall-CUMI Charity Golf Tournament on Saturday. MONTEGO BAY, St James — Last year, the Committee for the Upliftment of the Mentally Ill (CUMI) announced that it had shuttered its Day Rehabilitation Centre and would adopt a new model, becoming a foundation that would distribute funds and work with agencies to assist individuals living with mental illness. But those plans were put on hold following the passage of Hurricane Melissa, the devastating Category 5 storm that wreaked havoc across the western end of the island. “Last year the $4 million that we raised was spent on relief packages for the mentally ill. We worked with Cornwall Regional [and its] social workers and its mental health workers and we gave packages after the hurricane,” treasurer of CUMI Debbie Leouw told the Jamaica Observer on the sidelines of the annual Tryall-CUMI Charity Golf Tournament, held last Saturday at the Hanover-based club.. “We were definitely interacting more with the different agencies and having more conversations with people and then we had the huge hurricane relief where we gave out more than 400 bags. We had the event last September then the hurricane came and then we were able to react and give packages,” added Leouw, who is also head of CUMI’s fund-raising committee. She said CUMI is now focused on putting its previously announced plans into action to help the community it has been serving since 1990. “The hope is that we can now focus on the work for this year,” she said. This work will be funded through money raised from the 2026 charity golf tournament which, Leouw said, based on preliminary calculations, appears to be a tidy sum. George Kates of the Jamaica Public Service Company (left) is all smiles as he collects his award from Ray Therrian for the closest to the pin achievement during the CUMI-Tryall Charity Golf Tournament on Saturday. “We made $4.5 million gross but we have to look at what the expenses were,” Leouw pointed out as she outlined how the foundation intends to provide support to individuals impacted by mental health issues who are in need of assistance. “We are working with different agencies to see how much we can do for them. We went on different tours and now we just have to meet and see where it’s going to go. We have been in discussions with the parish council [St James Municipal Corporation], Cornwall Regional, the Western Regional Health Authority [and] we are talking to them, so we are going to see where we set on,” she added. Leouw was grateful for the continued support that enables CUMI to assist individuals in need through its charity golf tournament. “The support for CUMI is incredible and it’s always the same people, the same sponsors. We have a few new ones come on but it’s nice to see the ones that are there, they are always there,” she said. For this year’s event, there were also people including former president of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association Robin Russell, who tried his hand at the game. “The feeling is as it always is, people having a good time. It’s a relaxed tournament, friends play with friends, it’s all good camaraderie,” Leouw said about the event. She told the Observer that unfortunately, for another year, nobody won the hole-in-one prize, which was a Mercedes-Benz motorcar.