BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - LOCAL artiste Kervin ‘Infamus’ Benjamin made a donation to the family whose home was destroyed by fire on Saturday, February 13.
Not only did the fire damage the home of the Burkes family but also tragically took the lives of two young children ages six and two.
On Wednesday (Feb. 17) the Sandy Point High School’s cheerleading squad held a concert at the school to raise funds for the family.
According to Asha Jones-Woodley, a teacher at the school, two of the cheerleaders, Krystal Fahie and Gwenis Browne, were also living in the home and the fire destroyed all of their clothes and footwear.
“So we decided to organise the event to help raise funds for them,” she said. The concert was held at the school’s auditorium and children paid to attend the show from which the proceeds went to the family.
Woodley said that Benjamin was a surprised guest artiste at the concert and when the students saw him onstage some screamed and ran to the stage, while some of the female students were in tears.
“They were very enthused by him and the show turned out to be a success,” she said. Some of the students also performed in song and dance along with steel pan selections. Benjamin said that when he learnt of the tragic incident he immediately thought of a way that would help the family.
“I cannot imagine what it is like losing a child to something as devastating as a house fire, where the family was unable to get them out of the house,” he said.
“My contribution is nowhere close to what the family needs to help them rebuild, but I am hoping that it will bring some sort of comfort to the family that there are people who care and sympathise with them.”
Woodley expressed gratitude to Benjamin for helping to make their event a success. “On behalf of the SPHS cheerleaders we would like to officially thank him for his great performance at our event, and I hope that his career is as successful as his performance was at our show,” she said.
The artiste, who has been making headlines with his songs and music videos since the release of his first music video ‘21 Gun Salute (We Miss You)’ in August 2009, said that it was a warming experience to perform at the concert.
He recently held his Birthday Bash at Ma Pau (Feb. 20) where he released his third music video ‘Gonna Make It’ produced by Tru Capo.
