By Jasminee Sahoye

Guyana-born medical doctor and philanthropist, Dr Budhendranauth Doobay  and boxing legend Lennox Lewis will be among some notable Ontarians to be recognized at this year’s annual University of the West Indies (UWI) annual fund raising gala this Saturday at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Toronto.

The gala which is being observed under the theme Light, Learning and Liberty and the patronage of the Hon. G. Raymond Chang, Order of Jamaica, the UWI Toronto benefit gala raises funds for scholarships for outstanding academic achievers in the Caribbean, who are in great need of assistance.

Since the event started three years ago, 75 scholarships have been awarded.

A message from Mr. Chang states, “I believe in the best of the human spirit: we have the ability to extend ourselves well beyond our boundaries – whatever or wherever they may be… and in so doing, better the lives of those in our communities and our country.”

Vice Chancellor awards will be handed out to six deserving people including Mary-Anne Chambers, former Provincial Member of Parliament and retired Scotiabank Senior Vice-President; Dr Upton Allen, a graduate of UWI medical program, who is head of infectious diseases at the Hospital for Sick Children and Brigitte Shim, an architect, who came to Canada in the 1960s.  She is also an associate professor at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto.

Other awardees are Nicholas Brathwaite Jr, the son of former Grenada Prime Minister, Nicholas Brathwaite, who has spent the last 25 years developing and evaluating technology,  Dr. Douglas Orane, the non-executive chair of Grace Kennedy Ltd., who was presented with a UWI honorary doctorate in 2008 and Dr. Jamal Deen, a Guyana-born engineering professor and senior Canada Research Chair in Information Technology at McMaster University and director of the Micro and Nano Systems Laboratory.