IN JAMAICA : $55,000 worth of grocery in 90 secs. Mother of two, LESA Nicholas, 33, wins Christmas goods courtesy of Jamaica Observer ...."I've been unemployed for about two years. I do odd jobs here and there, sometimes I would work at (Boys' and Girls') Champs, little jobs like that"

BY DONNA HUSSEY-WHYTE Sunday Observer staff reporter husseyd@jamaicaobserver.com  Sunday, December 28, 2014    

LESA Nicholas, 33, had never won anything in her life.

Lesa Nicholas hurled herself onto the refrigerator
 to retrieve chickens, roasters and hams during her
 supermarket dash for Christmas groceries

So she was very surprised when she got a call from the Jamaica Observer informing her that she was one of two finalists chosen to dash for groceries at the Hi-Lo supermarket in Pines, Portmore two days before Christmas.

Nicholas could not contain her excitement as she had been unemployed for years and had no idea where groceries would come from to feed her two children and make Christmas as merry as possible for them.

"I'm so excited!" a smiling Nicholas told the Jamaica Observer which organised the event and was the main sponsor of it.

An elated Lesa Nicholas shows off the
 total of her ‘grabbings’ at the Hi-Lo
 Supermarket two days before Christmas

"I've been unemployed for about two years. I do odd jobs here and there, sometimes I would work at (Boys' and Girls') Champs, little jobs like that ... any little thing that come up, I do it. But I haven't had a steady job for about two years."

Nicholas said that she only just completed training as a municipal police officer in Spanish Town.

Lesa Nicholas (left) and Venisa Clarke-Lee (right)
 were elated after grabbing groceries totalling
almost $100,000 courtesy of the Jamaica
Observer at the Hi-Lo Supermarket in Portmore
 last Tuesday. Store manager Yvonne Gingoor
(second left) and marketing officer at the
Jamaica Observer Stacy-Ann Neilson were
only too happy to share in the occasion.

Even while her excitement was evident, it was a nervous Nicholas who mapped out her game plan as she stood in the supermarket an hour before she was expected to make her 90 seconds dash for groceries. She chose one of the largest trolleys the supermarket had, while placing another at an intricate location at the top of one of the aisles just in case she had enough time to grab more than one trolley could accommodate.

"I don't do any Christmas shopping yet because I never had the money and then this comes right in time. When I got the call I was like YES! So whatever I grab today will be my Christmas shopping. So I will be shopping in 90 seconds, that is like faster than Usain!" more