Last year, Fiolina Lovell-Burnett, president of the St Hugh’s Alumnae Association for South Florida, was on a mission to help her swan sisters raise approximately US$40,000 needed to renovate the netball court at her alma mater.
Now, with approximately US$32,000 already raised with the help of their Toronto, Canada, past students’ association, she is pleased with the response to her efforts so far, especially from her swan sisters, both local and in the diaspora.
As a former netball player for the all-girls St Andrew-based institution, the renovation project is one she has been very passionate about.
“I played netball at St Hugh’s for almost seven years, and even after St Hugh’s, I still played in Miami for a Pacesetters Netball Club, and I occasionally help out with the Florida Netball Association,” Lovell-Burnett, who graduated from the school in 1992 before migrating to the United States, told GoodHeart during an interview on Friday.
Lovell-Burnett, who now resides in Florida, also helps to raise funds for scholarships for students in need.
“What we do is a lot of fundraising here in South Florida to provide [help to] different demographics of students who are in need. We have a breakfast feeding programme, where we provide breakfast, lunch money and bus fare through the guidance counsellor for those girls who have a need, and we don’t make it public throughout the school. We also pay for exam fees,” she said.
Lovell-Burnett – who grew up in Bridgeport, Portmore – said 17 scholarships were handed out last year through the alumnae’s scholarship programme.
Renovation work has not yet started on the school’s netball court, but students and staff are already excited about the plans. During an interview on Friday on the school’s netball court, Latoyia Hinds-Brown, head of the physical education department at the St Hugh’s High School for Girls, told GoodHeart that efforts from past student presidents in the diaspora, such as Lovell-Burnett, have only motivated the girls to do better, adding that the school’s under-16 netball players have made it to the finals in the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) Urban Netball Competition.
“They are really looking forward to having a better court to play [on]. Volleyball has also not been played [here at the school] for about 10 years, and [the students] want the opportunity to play on better surfaces [which the netball court will also facilitate],” Hinds-Brown said.
Lovell-Burnett has always been dedicated to giving back. She recounts that during the pandemic, she was furloughed for three months, and even then, the wife and mother of four children gave back to Jamaica with what she had saved.
“During COVID, I started working with Food For The Poor Jamaica to build a house [for needy individuals] every year, and the first time I did it, I started on the venture and [then] my husband and I got furloughed. I had the funds that I was saving up,” she shared.
The mom of four said initially she planned to keep her savings should she not be called back after the three-month furlough.
“And every morning that I did my devotion is like the voice saying to me, ‘You’re being disobedient. You have this money to give this family who needs a home. If you have any issues, you have support, and you have alternatives. They don’t’,” she further explained.
Lovell-Burnett, who now serves professionally as a technology director at Supply Chain Divisions, said she eventually gave in and decided to send the money to Food For The Poor Jamaica to construct the house, and the following week, her employer called her offering “back pay” to return to work and a promotion.
For 2025, Lovell-Burnett says her charity work at St Hugh’s will be her main focus in Jamaica, while also working with women in distress.
“Our St Hugh’s [Alumnae Association of South Florida], we also work with women in distress, and we had a couple of Jamaican families we sponsored during Thanksgiving. My focus has primarily been in the field with women and children,” Lovell-Burnett told GoodHeart.
