Soca Goes Gold patron wants businesses to support show for charity

By Michron Robinson

Despite a fall off in sponsorship, Soca Goes Gold will be staged for the fourth year, with all proceeds going to help families in need.
During a press conference on Friday at Kensington Oval, Minister of Housing, Lands and Maintenance Dwight Sutherland, patron of the event hosted by the Eden Lodge Youth Charitable Trust, called for more sponsors to join the initiative which is for disadvantaged families.

“I, this evening, urge corporate Barbados to get on board…. Those persons at the end of the year who publish how much profit they have racked up annually, the profits are racked up on the backs of the underprivileged,” he said.

Sutherland made the plea for sponsorship as he noted that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic had reduced some families, who were “privileged” prior to the pandemic, to vulnerable positions.

“At the end of the day, when you don’t have food to put on your table it presents a major challenge not only for your children but for mothers and fathers and it brings about mental stress,” he pointed out.

He endorsed the work of the over 20-year-old Eden Lodge Youth Charitable Trust which he said is critical at such a time.

“We see charities such as the Eden Lodge Youth Charitable Trust and I must commend them and other nonprofit organisations which come to the fore to assist and who work alongside the Government to ensure that our people have some level of respectability,” he said.
Five hundred families are expected to benefit from the charity.

“The charity sets a target and [when it reaches] the target, it is set to enhance, enfranchise and solve some of the social problems for the underprivileged and disadvantaged. When that target is met, when we finish with a project – whether we are finished with the back-to-school, the Christmas hampers, or vouchers – we see some 20 to 25 per cent increase [in persons seeking help] and that’s the nature of the charity,” Sutherland explained.

The Trust’s Public Relations Officer Billie- June Langnon promised all proceeds from Soca Goes Gold 4 will go towards their back-to-school programme.

“Our back-to-school programme gives support to both secondary and primary school students which helps them to get their textbooks, petty fees, and buying school uniforms,” she explained.

Soca Goes Gold 4 will be held at Kensington on Saturday, July 9th.

Patrons will be treated to performances from The Baron and David Rudder of Trinidad and Tobago, and local entertainers Red Plastic Bag, The Mighty Gabby, TC, and Edwin Yearwood. (MR)