Basseterre, St. Kitts (May 10, 2017) — One of the longest running and colourful community festivals has partnered with the Development Bank of St. Kitts and Nevis in their endeavour to keep the country’s culture alive and well. The Green Valley Festival which takes place in the period May 27 to June 5 will be marking its 21st anniversary.
“We are a country that boasts of a rich cultural heritage, and the successful running of the Green Valley Festival in the last 20 years is testament to that,” observed Ms Vernitha Maynard, Marketing Officer at the Development Bank of St. Kitts and Nevis.
“As the bank that makes a sustained positive difference in our people’s lives, we are proud to be a sponsor of this festival for the second year running, having sponsored it last year. We are persuaded that people in the Green Valley’s outreach area are equally satisfied that the festival is meeting its objectives and we are on board with them as many of them are also clients of the bank in one way or the other.”
Ms Maynard made the remarks on Thursday May 4 when she handed the bank’s sponsorship cheque to Green Valley Festival Chairman, Mr Jerome Isaac, who said that the Development Bank cares about what is happening in the communities and it comes to their help when they are doing something that benefits the society.
“We came to Development Bank because they sponsored us last year as well,” said Mr Isaac. “Development Bank I must commend them for helping community festivals to develop especially the Green Valley Festival and we really appreciate and give thanks for this sponsorship from the Development Bank.”
He added: “We just want them to continue their great work and continue what they are doing to every community and whatever they can help in whatever way. I just want to tell them thanks. Development Bank supports community development. I do business personally with the bank because my wife and I have a mortgage for our home.”
Ms Maynard thanked Mr Isaac for his comments and added: “The Development Bank of St. Kitts and Nevis is in business to help with the economic development of the entire Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis where we make communities stronger and to help people achieve their dreams.”
According to Mr Jerome Isaac who has held the position of Chairman of the Green Valley Festival for the last four years, the theme for this year’s festival is ‘Fostering Community Development Through Cultural Involvement since 1996’. The festival covers the areas between Canada Estate to Lodge Village in Constituency Number 8.
The festival, observed Mr Isaac, is about more culture and more community based activities and for the last twenty years it has concluded on the Whit Monday and this year will be no exception
“We try to get involved with the schools, the church, the sports teams, and every organisation we can help,” said Mr Isaac. “So we as a community festival we try to do more for the community not only during the festival but throughout the year.
“Like on Christmas Day we cook food for people who need food, for the schools we do like Spelling Bees and do fund raising to help them. Those are some of the events we have on our calendar for this year as well too.”
The festival kicks off on Saturday May 27 with a promotional motorcade; there will be an elderly fun day at the Cayon Community Centre on Sunday May 28; a cohesion night on Monday May 29 at the Sandbox; official opening of the festival will be on Tuesday May 30 at the Sandbox; and Green Valley Spelling Bee competition will be on Wednesday May 31 at Cayon Primary School.
On Thursday June 1 it will be Cayon Primary School Open Day at the school; Friday June 2, the reigning Miss Green Valley, Ms Shecoma Greene, will be in waiting to pass on her crown to the new Miss Green Valley at the Miss Green Valley Queen Pageant to be held at the Sandbox; and on Saturday June 3 they will have the Green Valley Kids Fete at the Cayon Community Centre.
The much anticipated Green Valley Calypso Bacchanal will be held on Saturday June 3 at the Sandbox where reigning king Geraldo Herbert will be defending his title; on Sunday June 4 from 4:00 pm there will be the Green Valley Keys Beach Bash on Keys Beach; and on Whit Monday June 5 from 6:00 in the morning it will be the jouvert jam and Green Valley Festival will culminate with a grand parade starting from 3:00 in the afternoon.
“This year we are only having senior calypso show,” concluded Mr Isaac. “We had junior calypso shows in the past but we do not have it because it seemed like it was starting to interfere with the education of the children because they would have started doing their exams and we do not want to interfere with the education part of the Green Valley area.”