Annual Gala Connects Jamaica, America

The crowd listened, rapt, as Sasa Harriott told them about her lowest point.

The scene was a lavish Saturday-night black-tie affair in the ballroom of the Omni Hotel at the annual trailblazer and scholarship gala of the Jamaican American Connection of Greater New Haven. Founded in 2010 by Karaine Smith-Holness, the organization has as its mission to build connections and opportunity within the Jamaican and Caribbean diaspora.

“It was at this very gala in 2019,” said Harriott, a psychiatric nurse practitioner and trailblazer honoree at the event. ​“I was in the middle of breast cancer treatments and I had just finished a resignation letter to my company.” There she met Smith-Holness. ​“She helped me to see that my fight was not over yet.”

Little did she know, Harriott told an animated dressed-to-the-nines audience of 320, that when the pandemic hit the region a few months later, ​“the fight would not just be my own. It would be for the residents of this state, with me on the front line.” 

She saw, she said, ​“those in my community unable to access the same care as others.” There was another obstacle: ​“the mistrust that many communities of color, including the West Indian community, have of people in the medical field, a mistrust rooted in outsiders coming into our community with a lack of cultural competence.” 

The result was Harriott Home Health Services, a company Harriott founded with ​“nurses in the community unafraid of going into neighborhoods impacted by drug violence, into multi-generational homes, and into shelters, all with the goal of providing the highest quality of care to those who needed it the most, to those who are often forgotten,” she said. 

Emceed with keen wit by the singer, actor, and director Andrew Clarke, the event featured Audrey Marks, the Jamaican ambassador to the United States, and Sandra Lindsey, RN, the first American to receive the Covid vaccine, as well as recognition of five area scholarship award recipients of Caribbean heritage.

The purpose, according to Smith-Holness, was to raise funds, including those from a raffle and silent auction, ​“to create opportunities for deserving scholars this year and in the years to come to continue their education beyond high school.”

Franklyn D. Reynolds, the second trailblazer honoree and first Jamaican American president and CEO of UIL Holdings Corporation, recalled looking at the photographs from United Illuminating’s 125^th anniversary this year. ​“Seeing the folks that have come before me, I’m really proud of the diversity I represent,” said Reynolds, a native of Mandeville, Jamaica who immigrated with his family to Hartford when he was four. 

He credited his success to his father’s granite work ethic. ​“He worked three jobs,” he said. ​“He worked 11 at night til 7 in the morning at a print shop, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. driving a truck around the state of Connecticut for the Hartford Courant, and on the weekends he cleaned offices. 

“He kept a roof over our heads and he also made sure I could pursue an education and military career,” said Reynolds, a retired major of the Connecticut Army National Guard. 

Keynote speaker Juliet ​“Julie Mango” Bodley, a comedic actress and social media influencer, led the audience in Jamaican songs while recounting her battle with depression and her suicide attempts that prompted her to become a mental health advocate. 

“We think we only get second chances,” she said, as attendees enjoyed dessert. ​“We get many, many chances, and when they come, you have to be ready. It can miss you if you’re not ready, if you’re living on regret, if you say my time has passed. Everyone should feel they deserve the blessings that are coming to them.” 

“Be like a slingshot,” she exhorted the crowd. ​“Let your setbacks create opportunities for your greatest comebacks.” 

Smith-Holness, JAC’s founder president, expressed appreciation to all who were involved in the event. ​“It was a magical night,” she said. ​“We all showed the best of ourselves.”