CAROLYN Caesar-Murray, a businesswoman and former city councillor, along with five of her friends, now known as the ‘Topaz’ group, have managed to put smiles on the faces of some 400 children this year with their annual toy drive around the holiday season.

Carolyn, along with Monique Hall, Yvonne Vickerie, Nabijala Nelson, Shonis Hall and Elizabeth Gittens, are all businesswomen who take time out of their busy schedules to organise the grand feat of personally purchasing the toys and organising events to help fund the initiative.

This year, the team visited Friendship Nursery School, Roxanne Burnham Nursery and Sophia ‘C’ Field Nursery; the entire first and second level classes of these schools.
“You don’t know the joy we get from going to these schools. We feel like everything we have done is worth it,” Carolyn told Pepperpot Magazine a few days ago.

Organising 400 gifts is no easy task, especially when it comes to financing it because the team doesn’t like to hand out just any toy; it must be one of quality and value, one that can teach the children something and help them be active, as opposed to one that would immobilise them.

“We want to give a gift of a certain quality and value. We try to give them things that we think would motivate them to maybe become one of those things by learning more as they play with it; a guitar that they can play with to get them involved so they might see themselves in music in the future. We give gifts like an ambulance, fire service, machines, excavators, tools; things that they are able to utilise and interact with,” Carolyn shared.

But with some sponsors not coming through for them this year, it was rough to organise 400 presents, but the team came off successful nevertheless by arranging for various fundraising events. “We are hoping that a few companies or like-minded individuals would put us on their list next year as a potential group that they can allocate toys to so we can do more.”

The challenges aside, though, Carolyn and team find immense satisfaction with pulling off initiatives like these. “It gives our lives meaning. We feel like we are adding more to life than just make some money, spend some money; we’re doing something bigger.”

The toy drive started after COVID-19, but prior to this, Carolyn would have hosted a Christmas party for more than 10 years in Albouystown, where she grew up. She has always been interested in helping others, especially kids, and even wants to do more in future.

“I want to have an orphanage and do a lot of NGO work in the future. I am working towards that. I always see myself doing things like that later in my life,” she expressed. So for now, these initiatives are like stepping stones to what she ultimately wants to achieve.

Growing up in Garnette Street, Albouystown, she had witnessed firsthand how poverty affects people. As a city councillor, she had the opportunity to interact with people locally and internationally. She was particularly impressed to see the measures that are in place in other countries to support children and vulnerable groups.

So she started to host a party for the children in Albouystown every year, among several other community initiatives that saw her interacting with children, elderly ones, single parents, and other groups of people who may be in need.