By:Curtis Morton
St. John’s Parish-Nevis—Mr. Alsted Pemberton, Project Coordinator of the Basic Needs Trust Fund (BNTF) along with Mr. Randy Elliot, senior executive officer at the Ministry of Agriculture, on Friday 12th February took time out to inform the general public of a major upcoming event, which will encompass the entire St.John’s community.
The event which will be held at the Ivor Walters Primary School, on the evening of Saturday 27th February, is dubbed the ‘St.John’s Know Your Community Quiz.’ It is set to commence at 6.30 pm.
It will be in the form of a quiz competition which will feature a general knowledge of the various communities within the St.John’s Parish.
Elliot explained that the idea originated with the Cane Garden community group of which he is president and which started over a year ago. The Cane Garden committee’s executive is as follows:
Randy Elliot-president; Petronella Hinds-vice president; Mrs. Chowty-vice president; Gwenneth Browne-PRO; Mr. Hinds-PRO; Trevor Dookeran and Ordette Weekes-Treasurers and Akeja Edingborough-Secretary. The group has been involved in several cleanup activities; funding of scholarship to members of the community and ‘games nights.’
They decided to come up with yet another activity which would endeavour to unite the multi cultural community. As discussions progressed, he spoke with Mr. Alsted Pemberton who he knew was very experienced from the ST.John’s Community Improvement Club (SJCIC) perspective, as that club would have held a successful community based quiz for many years.
Out of those discussions, the following have been finalized:
The participants will represent a combination of 9 areas:
Pond hill, Beach Road and Hermitage
Cox, Beaumont and Montpelier
Cole Hill, Brown Pasture and Morning Star
Church Ground
Cane Garden
Brown Hill
Prospect
Cherry garden
Bath Village
Questions for the quiz will be based on four categories and strictly pertaining to information relevant to the St.John’s community: Sports and Culture; Education and History; Politics and Government and general.
Two children, one from the primary schools-grades 4 to 6 and the other from the secondary schools-forms 1 to 4, will represent each community. They will be able to collaborate in giving the answers.
All of the participants will receive trophies and the top three communities will also receive trophies. The trophies have been sponsored by S L Horsfords and Co. LTD.
The first place community will also receive $500.00; second place-$350.00 and third place-$200.00.
The monetary prizes have been sponsored by Area representative, Hon. Mark Brantley.
Additionally, the top participants will be given food hampers to distribute to needy persons within their respective communities. These have been jointly sponsored by Yokko Construction; Jack and Associates; Department of Social Services; Best Buy Supermarket; Valu Mart and Rams Supermarket.
Other prizes will be offered to persons attending the quiz. These include lunch for two at Rodney’s Cuisine and Mem’s Pizzeria, among others.
Certain business places have come on board to sponsor T-shirts for the participating teams. For example, Reliable Motors is sponsoring the Bath Village team and A-1 Technology is sponsoring the combined Pond Hill, Beach Road and Hermitage team.
Additionally, at the end of each round, a question will be asked of the audience and the persons who answer correctly will give additional points to their respective communities.