Saturday, December 19, 2009    

                           Leonard 'Chicken" Mason, convener   Leonard "Chien"  of the Excelsior Foundation for Excellence

                                             of  the newly formed fund-raising group

                                 The Excelsior Foundation for Excellence

The Excelsior Foundation for Excellence, the newly formed autonomous fund-raising affiliate of the Excelsior Alumni Association (USA) Inc has pledged its support for excellence.

The purpose of this foundation, the organizers say, is to raise, distribute and utilize funds on a charitable basis for the sole purpose of helping to restore Excelsior High School's once gleaming reputation for excellence.

By freeing up the larger Excelsior Alumni Association to concentrate on more broad based initiatives, the group says, it will deliberately be more narrow focused in its fund raising and selective in its disbursement of funds.

The foundation is being managed by a seven-member committee headed by prominent businessman Mr. Leonard Mason, BSC, MBA, CEO of LEMS Accounting Service and a former Excelsior and Jamaica international football representative. The members of the committee are as follows:

Leonard E. Mason, Karl “Bagga”Wilson, Charles Ellis, Duane Coombs, Michael D. Caballero, Leighton Young and George Seaton

According to the convener of the Foundation, Leonard “Chicken “ Mason, "Our main purpose is to establish a solid educational foundation for students of Excelsior and to have their families become totally involved in the daily activities”.

First up in its fund-raising effort, the group has announced its inaugural fund-raising event. It is a mid-winter soiree in New York in collaboration with the Excelsior Alumni Association, Merritone, MLK & Memories, slated for Saturday January 23, 2010 at Chef Orchid at JFK. Merritone, featuring the legendary Winston Blake, and Chappy's Stateside will provide the music for dancing. Merritone MLK & Memories is the first of a series of events that it will host throughout the year to raise the seed money to pursue its mission.

A presentation of special commemorative plaques will be made to the five surviving founding members of the Excelsior Alumni Association (USA) Inc.: Frank Powell, Gilbert  Scarlett, Hyacinth Dorothy Ramsay, Louis McGann and Lee Watts and this will highlight the event.  The fund-raising dance caps the year-long celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the founding of the Alumni association.

The Foundation is inviting alumni to join it in making this, and other events that it will be undertaking in the future, a success. The members are imploring past students, if they are not yet members, to join the various alumni chapters in their area (New York, Toronto, Florida, Jamaica) and urge them to become members and support the endeavors of these Associations.

If past students are in the New York area, they are encouraged to support  the first fund-raiser. If they are unable to do, so they can still support the event by either purchasing a ticket or making a donation. Finally, alumni who are not in the New York area can still support the bash by urging their friends and relatives and other Excelsior Alumni to support this venture.

"There's a difference between interest and commitment. When you're interested in doing something, you do it only when circumstance permit. When you're committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results.”  -Excelsior Foundation for Excellence