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Zahvelisia Claxton reads her winning essay to the rest of the school, while looking on are Ms Elmeader Brookes and school principal, Mr Conrad Liburd. |
Charlestown Nevis (April 21, 2004) -- Nevis’ country level winners in the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) Foundation for the Caribbean 2003 Children’s Essay Contest at the junior and senior divisions, Adriel Benjamin and Zahvelisia Claxton, respectively, received their awards on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The annual essay contest attracts entries from all FCCA partner destinations, and Nevis is one of them. In last year’s contest, children in both the junior and senior divisions were asked to write on the topic ‘What steps has my country taken towards improving the cruise passengers experience while in my country’.
The contest was conducted in three rounds: At school level, country level and Caribbean level. The two winners from Nevis had their essays submitted to the FCCA for the third round of the contest, but they did not place. They were therefore awarded for being the winners at the country level.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism, Mr Tyrone O’Flaherty, presented ten-year old Master Adriel Benjamin of the Combermere Primary School with a cheque of US$200.00 on Tuesday morning during school assembly, for being Nevis’ top student in the junior division.
Winner in the senior division, Miss Zahvelisia Claxton, 16, of Gingerland Secondary School received her cheque of US$200.00 from the Director of Research and Development in the Ministry of Tourism, Ms Elmeader Brookes, at a function held in the school auditorium Wednesday morning.
Ms Brookes also announced that entries are now open for the FCCA Foundation for the Caribbean 2004 Children’s Essay Contest whose topic is ‘How has the cruise industry and/or cruise passengers impacted my country?’ for both the junior and senior divisions.
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Junior category winner, Adriel Benjamin, shows his cheque and essay to Combermere Primary School principal Mrs Ermileta Elliott. |
Junior Division is open to children ages 12 and under, and that contestants may not have passed their thirteenth birthday by October 4, 2004. The Senior Division is open to ages 13 to 16 and contestants may not have passed their 17th birthday by October 4, 2004.
Each student must submit one essay, approximately 300-500 words in length that will be judged for content/subject, creativity, style/structure and grammar. For the first round, each school must submit their entries to the Ministry of Tourism at Marion Heights no later than Friday July 2, 2004.
The selection committee at the Ministry of Tourism will then choose one winner from each age group from all the essays that would have been received from the different schools in Nevis, and these would then be submitted to the FCCA no later than Friday August 6, 2004. The FCCA will notify the all the winners by August 20, 2004.
The FCCA will award cash scholarships to the first, second and third place winners from the two age categories. In both the divisions, the first place winner will receive US$2,500.00, while their school will receive US$1,250.00. The second place winner will receive US$1,500.00 and the school will receive US$750.00, while the third place winner will receive US$1,000.00 and the school will receive US$500.00.
