Giving because I always get my blessing

Kathleen Shaw-Gonzales poses with her GOJ ICDP Enterprise Development Grant Project Certificate of Achievement and Award for Community Service in the community of Greenwich Town, at the JSIF Community Awards at the AC Hotel by Marriot, Lady Musgrave Road, St Andrew, on April 6.
April 25, 2023
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The fisherwoman, who owns a boat with the same name as her business place ‘Kasalegna’, has had a long association with the JSIF. It started in 2014 when she was the recipient of a chest freezer (deep freeze), an igloo (cooler) and a weigh scale. By then, two freezers she owned had stopped working and she was without a scale.

“When I got the new one (deep freeze), it helped me to set more ice to sell to fishermen. And I used to have to be borrowing people’s scale. So I don’t have to borrow people’s scale no more,” she declared.

In addition to selling fishing, Shaw-Gonzales also generates income from selling buckets of ice to other fisherfolk. She tries to give back from her earnings but the needs are many, she admits. They range from helping to provide school uniforms, lunch money, school shoes and bags to bus fare for young students.

In addition, she is a member of the Greenwich Town Fishing Beach executive, which administers affairs on behalf of the fishing community.