“What Good Goes Around Comes Around – The Joe Issa Experience!”

 

Joe Issa would be the last person to argue against “giving Jack his Jacket”. After all, he ‘reinvented’ the concept of “giving credit where credit is due”, and by so doing he spawned what would amount to a case of “what goes around comes around”, as several organizations testify to his support and generosity over the years and do for him, in their own way, what he did for them.

Issa would equally be the last to admit that he doesn’t appreciate the accolades showered on him for his deeds.

“If we are true to ourselves we will admit that it is a good feeling to be appreciated…and the joy people feel when they receive is the same that I feel when I give,” says Issa, adding, “Anything else is extra but still very much humbly appreciated.”

Through Cool Charities, one of over 50 subsidiaries of Cool Group of companies, one of just a few big Jamaican entities to be headquartered in the resort town of Ocho Rios, Issa gives back to education and sports involving young people and communities.

Look, for example, the effort which Guys Hill High Key Club put into giving back to Issa by saying thanks for his contribution to the school. The school and several others benefitted from computers and air conditioning units delivered by Cool Charities. Guys Hill High Key Club, which is affiliated to Kiwanis Club in the parish, presented Issa with a nicely framed certificate of appreciation.

On March 15, 2000 when Issa was installed Parish Patron for St. Ann by the Jamaica 4-H Clubs, he said he was thrilled by the gesture, the confidence they had bestowed on him. “The pleasure, really, is in the ceremony; the certificate is just a constant reminder of that moment, long after it is over.”

“Quite frankly, I think it is disrespectful to turn down an offer to be recognized by someone or an organization, as long as you know you have done something to deserve it,” Issa says, adding,  “If I know I don’t deserve it, I won’t accept the invitation; I won’t compromise my integrity.”

However, Issa has never been called upon to compromise his integrity as, on every occasion that he is called to accept an award, you can bet it’s because of what he has contributed and worked hard to achieve, which is a stark reminder that “you only get back what you put in…what goes around comes around.”

Issa received the honors of the Third Degree of the Knight of Columbus in a special exemplification honoring Bishop George E. Ruefer on November 18, 1987. The certificate is signed by both the Grand and Supreme Knights.

He has also been named one of Travel Agent Magazine’s Rising Stars, and that’s in recognition of his outstanding achievement – leader and achiever.

And when, at university, he passed all four parts of the accounting exam in one sitting, Edward Seaga wrote to his father to congratulate him.

He has been distinguished for service above self, by the St Mary Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club of Kingston, Kiwanis Club of St. Mary, and Kiwanis International. He also received the Kiwanis International Lieutenant Governor’s Appreciation Award for continued support and generosity to Division 24, which includes Eastern Canada and Caribbean Districts.