EE/LL Festiville honouree calls for drug & violence free celebrations
Ms Penn was present with her family for the honouring at the opening ceremony last night August 5, 2013 and she complimented the committee for carrying on the legacy of working hard to ensure that the celebrations in the EE/LL communities continue at a very high level.
“One thing I would like to happen in this village is that this village be drug free, smoke free and violence free. That is what I would want more than anything else for this East End/ Long Look Festiville village,” said Ms Penn.
She also appealed to persons to have all the other activities including the stage show, Rise and Shine Tramp and parade be non-violent as she noted that the activities when held in the EE/LL area are always the biggest and best on the island.
In 1979 Ms Penn became involved in the management of the East End/Long Look Festival with the role of assisting where there was a need. The whole aspect of Festival at that time was about planning fund raising activities, Queen competitions, rise and shine and the parade. “Ms Penn was a member of the East End/Long Look Management Committee from 1979 to 1986 and it was during that time on August Wednesday that the East End Long Look festival was taken on the beach at Beef Island on two occasions,” recalled Ms Arliene T. Penn who read a background to Ms Penn’s involvement in the history making of the festivals.
In addition to her years of dedicated service of the committee, she was a EE/LL Festival Queen in 1968. Today Ms Penn is employed as the Supervisor of Elections with the Government of the Virgin Islands.
Responding to the honour, Ms Penn thanked the committee for having bestowed such an honour on her.
The district representatives for the two communities, 7th and 8th Districts, Deputy Premier and Minister for Natural Rescources and Labour Dr the Honourable Kedrick D. Pickering and Honourable Marlon A. Penn were present at the ceremony.
Hon Pickering made the call once again that the youths of the Territory be taught the history of the country. “It is important that we teach the young ones what slavery is all about. Slavery was about economics. There is no other way to describe it and if we do not understand and remember, the tables will turn on us again and we will find ourselves heading into a direction where we would ask how did we get here.”
“There are some of the slavery tactics that remain in our community, that of divide and conquer,” said Hon. Penn. He said it is very evident that the communities are divided along several lines. We are being divided across economic lines, political lines and other lines."
He noted that a lot of sweat and tears went into the development of the Territory and dividing and conquering as a people would not help it to get to that "next step".
While the opening ceremony was poorly attended it is anticipated that the usual mammoth support will be realized at the remaining activities to be held in the area. Those activities include the rise and shine tramp tomorrow, Wednesday August 7, 2013 and the stage show on tonight August 6, 2013.
11 Responses to “EE/LL Festiville honouree calls for drug & violence free celebrations”