Tropic Relief

Jamaica may conjure up romanticized images of beaches, Rastafarians and Pirates of the Caribbean but there is more to this idyllic place than pretty palm trees. The tiny West Indies nation is also a poor island where a teacher makes an annual salary of $3,000 U.S. This year, Tropic Relief, a local charity associated with the Philadelphia Foundation for World Music and Arts, is starting a scholarship fund to help Caribbean and Caribbean-American students afford to attend American colleges, which have some of the most expensive tuitions in the world. Additionally, this organization is always looking for basic supplies, such as clothing, linens, toothpaste and school notebooks, to bring to Jamaica on their biannual pilgrimage. (It takes more than just tourist dollars to float an island.)

Tonight, a special fundraiser at the Please Touch Museum features Caribbean food, reggae and world music and artwork created by Jamaican schoolchildren of Westmoreland, a Jamaican parish that includes Montego Bay and Negril. This is a country whose national motto, "Out of Many, One People," welcomes all, including tourists. Isn't it time to give something back? As they say in Jamaican patois, "Irie, mon, mek wi go!"

Tropic Relief, Thu., Aug. 21, 6-8 p.m., $30, Please Touch Museum, 210 N. 21st St., 215-413-1311, www.tropicrelief.org .

—Helen i-lin Hwang

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