By Balford Henry, Staff Reporter 
Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies Professor Rex Nettleford acknowledging the efforts of Courtney Foster, a Campion College student, in support of the University's Scholarship Fund at a March 2000 function. - File
Today we continue profiles of the nominees for the 2001 Gleaner Honour Award. Members of public were asked to nominate persons in seven categories: entertainment, voluntary service, business, arts and culture, public service, science and technology and sports. Today we spotlight the nominee for voluntary service, 14-year-old Courtney Foster, a student of Campion College in St. Andrew. She has raised more than $1 million for various charities.
Courtney's latest achievement is the raising of $750,000 for the annual Dr. Norman Sinclair Memorial Scholarship through her Kids for Charity fashion and stage shows, held at the Sutton Place Hotel each year. She and some 20 friends have been modelling and dancing annually since 1997 to raise the money for the $150,000 per year medical scholarship to the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona.
CAN YOU imagine yourself raising over $1.3 million for charity by the age of 12?
Well, that's exactly what Campion College fourth former 14-year-old Courtney Foster has done.
Courtney's latest achievement is the raising of $750,000 for the annual Dr. Norman Sinclair Memorial Scholarship via her Kids for Charity fashion and stage shows, held at the Sutton Place Hotel each year. She and some 20 friends have been modelling and dancing annually since 1997 to raise the money for the $150,000 per year medical scholarship to the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona.
The scholarship, named after her late uncle, a former schoolboy 100-metre sprinter who finished third to Olympic Gold medallist Donald Quarrie at Boys' Champs at the National Stadium in the early 1970s, becoming the first medallist from St. Mary High School before he switched to Kingston College.
Howard Aris, a colleague of Dr. Sinclair at KC, said that although he died at a relatively young age, during his lifetime he displayed the character and approach to academia that made him proud to be associated with him.
Dr. Sinclair died of leukemia in the United States in 1996. He had served the Jamaican communities in New York City, including at Brooklyn's Kings County Hospital, for several years.
"I attended his funeral and I made a promise that I will never let his name go to waste," said Courtney Foster.
In 1997 Courtney, in search of another avenue to serve, launched a scholarship locally in memory of Dr. Sinclair, offering the sum of $150,000 annually to a needy medical student at the UWI, Mona.
Andrea Vassell, UWI administrative assistant, said that considering that only about 5.5 per cent of the roughly 5,000 students at the Mona campus are able to access scholarships, Courtney's gesture was welcomed on the campus in view of the tremendous need for assistance among the student population.
Miss Vassell said that all the recipients of the scholarship have done well so far.
In the first year, the scholarship was shared between Dr. Aleith Hemans, a graduate of Glenmuir High School in Clarendon, who is now an intern at the Cornwall Regional Hospital in Montego Bay, and Steve Campbell, a Kingston College graduate.
Orlando Thomas, the 1998 winner "has matured into a fine young man," Miss Vassell said, and since the death of his mother, last year, has been playing an important role in the upbringing of his siblings. He is in his final year.
Gilbert Walcott, the 1999 recipient, is in his third year at UWI while the winner for 2000, Sean Parkinson, is in his second year. This year's recipient was Nikiesa Campbell, a former peer adviser at Camperdown High School and an active community youth leader.
Thomas told the audience at this year's Kids for Charity Show that when he got the scholarship he had just run out of financial options. "I decided that I would pray, because I am a Christian and I firmly believe in the power of God to remove all obstacles and to open all doors," he said.
Courtney's fund-raising activities date back to 1992 when she saw a story in The Star, the Gleaner's afternoon tabloid, about a little boy who had cancer in his eyes. She took up her exercise book, walked around to solicit help from relatives and friends then bought a manager's cheque and sent it to The Star.
Two years later, she was among a group of teenie boppers who were invited to model at the Curlin Johnson Basic School on Saunders Avenue in the midst of the troubled area of Mountain View Avenue. The school did not have electricity, so they had to model in a park across the road under the street light. Courtney vowed that she would help light up the school building.
The next year she staged her first Kids for Charity show at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, New Kingston, with a target of $30,000 to pay for wiring the building. She made $35,000 and the basic school was lit up.
The school was so pleased with her efforts that the board's secretary, Lorren Bell, asked her to help them raise funds to pay off its water bill of $27,000 which had led to its disconnection. She staged a second Kids for Charity Show in 1995 with a target of $40,000 and eventually handed over $52,500 to the school from the profits.
The next year she took on the challenge of assisting the Walker's Place of Safety on Maxfield Avenue, Kingston, to help clear a water bill of $500,000. She set a target of $100,000 for that year's show and actually raised $110,500 for the Home. Member of Parliament for the area, Dr. Peter Phillips, was so pleased with her effort, he invited her to his office and made a special presentation to her.
That same year she also took up the challenge of helping the children of the Walker's Place of Safety to have a good Christmas. She staged a "Hollyween Party" at the Hilton Hotel and raised $70,000 which she donated to them. That was the year uncle Dr. Norman Sinclair died and Courtney turned her efforts towards his memory with the launch of the scholarship.
To date she has raised a total of $1,350,000 for charitable institutions. In addition, she has committed herself to personally assisting others, including her pledge last year to Kimberley Brown of the Windward Primary School to provide her with $20,000 a year.
For her achievements, last year Courtney was named a PALS (Peace and Love in Schools) young achiever. This year she won the National Child Month Committee Award for Kingston.
According to her mother, Janet Sinclair, a former Star advice columnist, her most touching act was when she went to the United States and was presented with a computer as a gift. Although she did not have one at home at the time, Courtney donated it to the Curlin Johnson Basic School.
Born on February 7, 1987, Courtney attended Vaz Prep before going on to Campion College, where she is preparing for eight CXC subjects which she will sit towards the end of the next school year.
She has two sisters Peta Gaye and Roxanne and a brother, Paul. She spends her spare time mostly watching television, especially law shows like "Matlock," "Ali McBeal" and "Judge Judy." She said that she wants to be a criminal lawyer, because she wants to see people get more justice. She admires Ian Ramsay Q.C. and thinks that he is the finest lawyer in the land.
"I hate injustice. I want to fight for people who have suffered injustices," she said.
Courtney also reads a lot and is interested in current events.
"Every day she reads both the morning and afternoon papers and she watches the news on television," her mother said.
When she can, she listens to Beenie Man and Mariah Carey. She plays little sports now, but was once a footballer at Vaz Prep. Now, she says that raising money for needy people, watching television, reading the newspapers, surfing the Internet and doing her homework take up so much of her time, she hardly has time for anything else.
