Irwine Clare and Team Jamaica Bickle volunteers
Photo courtesy of Andrea Lawful-Sanders
Written by Andrea Lawful-Sanders
It is the day before the official launch of the 129th annual Penn Relays at the University of Pennsylvania and in a local kitchen some 9 miles away, Dave Dawes, owner of Jamaican D’s is working diligently to donate several trays of food for the upcoming athletes and ambassadors in hotels from across the Caribbean diaspora, as they get ready to showcase in track and field, what they have trained diligently to gain a space in this coveted competition.
“I have been donating to Team Jamaica Bickle since 2007 when I had one food truck,” says Dawes.
“I am then paid on Friday on Saturday by Team Jamaica Bickle to serve dozens of pans of meals that will feed the athletes and ambassadors. I do this because it is about giving back, it is not always about the money, yes we need money to survive, but love and country and giving back means everything to me. When you bless people, you are blessed in return.”
Indeed.
Dave’s sentiments are shared by the multitude of local restaurants that Team Jamaica Bickle, [TJB] spearheaded by Irwine Clare and a team of “super volunteers who are compelled for the last 31 years, to create a welcoming space of warmth that services the athletes on, and off the fields each year.
“The burgeoning relationship between Team Jamaica Bickle and local restaurants in Philadelphia, is a shift after 31 years of doing this work, said Clare. “Local Caribbean restaurants in Philadelphia, have become major suppliers for home cooked meals for our ambassadors. It is the goal of TJB to create a relationship that has welcomed our local restaurants.
We appreciate them for their contributions- transactional coupled with their donations, and giving love to our food through our athletes. Truly a labor of love, respect, and commitment.”
TJB is the leading organization in sports, providing support services for Caribbean athletes, particularly Jamaicans who compete at the annual Penn Relays Carnival, which is held at the University of Pennsylvania, (UPENN) in Philadelphia, PA. TJB, a not-for-profit corporation based in New York State, was formed in 1994 and later designated a 501(c)(3) organization.
Dave Dawes- owner of Jamaican D’s
Photo courtesy of Andrea Lawful-Sanders
TJB’s is the current CEO Irwine G. Clare Snr. The affiliated TJB-Philadelphia Organizing Committee was simultaneously formed by co-founder Blane Stoddart. The TJB-Philadelphia Organizing Committee is chaired by Co-Chair Vincent Heath and Co-Chair Pervis Morrison. The TJB-Philadelphia Organizing Committee is an all-volunteer team that raises funds locally and manages various aspects of the support operation at the annual Penn Relays.
Volunteers serve meals three times daily to over 600 attendees and provide transportation and medical services to all the athletes.
TJB’s mission is embodied in the motto, ‘Our Athletes, Our Ambassadors.’
TJB’s services extend to a delegation of approximately six hundred & fifty (650) students and coaches from Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, St. Vincent & The Grenadines Guyana and Grenada.
Over the years TJB has welcomed and extended its services to delegations of students and coaches from the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), Bahamas, Barbados and most recently Belize.
Team Jamaica Bickle provides the following:
Meals and other refreshments
Physical therapy, chiropractic, mentorship and medical services
Ground transportation
Daily hotel to stadium shuttle airport transfers for arrival & departure
Subsidized hotel rate
Subsidized airfare
In 1999, Team Jamaica Bickle became the first Jamaican organization to be a participating sponsor at the Penn Relays. As a result the Jamaican flag became the first foreign flag to be flown at the Penn Relays, a distinction unmatched.
Over the years, TJB has received numerous proclamations and awards from several local and national entities.
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