BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE Tyrell Williams Primary School was last night (Dec. 22) at Carnival Village adjudged winner of the Prince and Princess Scholarship Pageant.
Representing the learning institution, 10-year-old Michael Sutton and nine-year-old Ceondra Edwards also captured the award for Best Youthful Formal Wear.
Originally, the pageant, which was dormant for some years, was scheduled for Saturday (Dec. 10) and was postponed due to bad weather.
The competition was a stiff one with some of the schools edging out each other by four and even two and half points.
The winning school amassed 373 points while the First Runner-up position went to Cayon Primary School’s Devion Hodge and Rochelle Hamilton who totalled 370.5 points.
The Second Runner-up position went to Estridge Primary School’s Trevon Alexander and Julia-Ann Wigley who amassed 358 points, while Dr. William Connor Primary School’s Ta-jaroh and Toshiorna Millington placed Third Runner-up with 354 points.
Cayon Primary School won the Best Promotional Speech and Dean Glasford’s Adrian Tobias and Celina Gumbs won the Talent segment.
The other schools that participated were Irish Town Primary, Saddlers Primary, Dieppe Bay Primary, St. Pauls Primary and Bronte Welsh Primary.
Hosts for the night were former National Carnival Queen Johan Kelly and Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College’s Delante Lewis.
The children performed brilliantly and confidently onstage as they showcased various messages in the Talent segment.
Some of them spoke of fathers who need to be more proactive in their children’s lives instead of leaving the sole responsibility to mothers.
Some of them also spoke about having a balanced life and not being too much into books and meaningfully dispensing their time in other extra-curricular activities, while other schools spoke solely of the importance of education.
Some of the sideshows included a performance from the Children’s Dance Theatre, a presentation of costumes for the Children’s Carnival and a performance by the recently-crowned Junior Calypso Monarch, Singing Solution.
The show was held under the theme ‘Dream Big and live It’, which denotes that children should aspire to achieve their dreams and not be held down and kept back.
The pageant, which saw the children performing speeches, talents and modelling from weeks of rehearsals and preparation, reminded all in attendance what precious jewels and gems the nation’s youth truly are.
It is important that they are raised in happy and healthy environments where they are free to explore their imaginations and live a life where they experience love and are able to reciprocate.
Let us not allow negative activities such as gangs and violence to take over our children’s mind, but rather it is essential for parents to truly understand their role in their children’s life and how important their presence, time and teaching will be of value to them.
Our children are the Federation’s future and they should also be protected from those predators who seek to rob them of their innocence.
