Krista Henry, Staff Reporter

Giving more than just money from his pocket, international artiste Orville 'Shaggy' Burrell has given his time, effort and heart to tend to the needs of the Bustamante Children's Hospital and its patients.

On January 3 on the lawns of Jamaica House, Shaggy will be taking on probably the most difficult task of his career by attempting to raise US$2 million at his fund-raising event, Shaggy and Friends. Under the umbrella of Shaggy's Make A Difference Foundation, the money raised will buy equipment needed for the hospital to effectively treat its patients.

Shaggy's work with the hospital began seven years ago when he visited a friend, producer Tony Kelly, at the hospital, where the producer's son was being treated. He told The Sunday Gleaner, "I was there with Dave Kelly, Tony's brother, and that is when I realised the condition of the hospital. I made a promise to myself. I said 'listen, if I blow up again I'm gonna do something about it'. When I blew up again I made good on that promise because of the fact that you want to do it when you're hot, because you want to raise the awareness. We went on Rosie O'Donnell, Conan O'Brian, the 'Today Show' and talked about it."

Blessed relationship

Head of the department of anaesthesia and intensive care at the Bustamante Children's Hospital, Dr Lambert Innis, said Shaggy's relationship with the hospital has been a blessing. The three mechanical ventilators that are at the hospital were donated through Shaggy.

"He bought two of them and one came from a donor as a result of Shaggy's work," said Dr Innis.

"Ideally, we need eight ventilators and a minimum six," he further pointed out.

"The ventilators are vital life-saving machines used in the intensive care unit when babies are not able to breathe for themselves."

A father of three, Shaggy knows what it is like to be responsible for a child, and often gets emotional seeing other parents mourning the loss of their children due to a hospital's lack of proper equipment. Over the last few years, Shaggy has donated numerous machines to the hospital. Each Christmas he also buys and wraps 300 presents and delivers them to children at the hospital. Shaggy often solicits the help of other artistes, such as Sean Paul, Cham, Mavado and Bounty Killer to distribute the presents.

While seeing the smiles on the faces of the children as they open their gifts has always given him that 'special feeling', for Shaggy it simply isn't enough. He told The Sunday Gleaner that more work needs to be done at the hospital

to get it operational and functioning at an efficient level. This need, he said, was brought to the fore on one of his most recent visits to the hospital.

"When somebody looks at you and tell you his kid died in his arms 'cause there wasn't a machine, wha yuh do?" Shaggy stated. "The machine that was available was the only one that I bought and there was another kid on it, and the only way that your child could live was if that one die, and you can't sit down wish pon di people pickney fi dead so that yours can live. To me that's just wrong in every sense of the word. When yuh look at the likkle girl, Peach, wid di bullet in her head and how dedicated her father is - again, she hook up to another machine I bought. Wi haffi do something else."

Since conceptualising the concert, the artiste has been getting no rest, up late hours meeting with artistes, corporate executives and production personnel on a whirlwind promotion and planning phase. The entertainment community, locally and internationally, has also pledged its support with performances by persons such as Macy Gray, J Holiday, Sean Kingston, and model and actor Tyson Beckford will co-host the event. Morgan Heritage, Tarrus Riley, Etana, Tessane Chynn, Freddie McGregor, Elephant Man, Marcia Griffiths and Tony Rebel are among the local artistes who will perform.

Numerous donations

'Shaggy and Friends' concert was launched at the hospital last Monday with the first set of donations from corporate Jamaica. Cellphone giant Digicel donated $500,000 to the hospital and pledged to buy another $500,000 worth of tickets to the event. The Bank of Nova Scotia donated $1 million, as well as Sagicor, who also made a commitment to give the hospital $5 million over a period of time. Wisynco gave $1 million and Jamaica National promised to make a $500,000 cheque donation at a later date.

The tickets for 'Shaggy and Friends' cost $5,000 per person, which is inclusive of drinks, and $15,000, which includes VIP treatment, a dinner with Shaggy and other artistes, a private auction for a chance to win a studio session with the Mr Boombastic singer, a race with Usain Bolt, and more.

Shaggy said while he expects the funds from the concert to go a far way, it is just the beginning. He explained that the machines would have to be maintained, and that he was looking at the possibility of assisting other hospitals in the future.