SANDY POINT, St. Kitts and Nevis (May 16, 2013): Sandy Point’s largest civil society organisation, SPIRIT, is set to accept a prestigious community service award in New York, as the growing group of community movers and shakers celebrate its third year of activism.
The award, given by the Sandy Point Benevolent Society (SPBS), is the ‘Distinguished Community Service Award’ and is listed as the top award of the United States-based group of Sandy Point High School alumni. SPIRIT is being recognised for the work it has undertaken in ‘’revitalising the socio-economic and cultural fabrics of the town of Sandy Point’’. It is the first time that a community based organization has been presented this special SPBS award and it bears testimony to the profound recognition of the group’s work in the community and the level of appreciation that it elicits.
This news comes as SPIRIT’s programme of community empowerment enters its fourth year, having recently staged the nation’s largest community festival, Black San’ Bang-A-Lang. The SPIRIT Executive welcomes the nomination as a grand cause for celebration. Commenting on the group’s nomination for the award, SPIRIT’s president, Seanel Riley said in elation, ‘’the last three years, SPIRIT has been able to mobilise and engage the community in a way we have never seen.
We have provided avenues for volunteerism and have sought to uphold the virtues of pride and excellence that Sandy Pointers all over have been known for. So, to receive news of this nomination makes us all proud and honoured. We believe it is a testament of our members’ altruism, of our community’s trust and of our business partners and sponsors’ confidence in the work we do.”
In three years, SPIRIT has branched out into key pillars including Community Empowerment, Agriculture and Environmental Conservation and Health, Sports and Fitness. It has a fast-growing Junior SPIRIT brand and has already left its mark on Sandy Point with major community clean-up campaigns, hurricane preparedness expos, the cultural festival Chambalay along.
The group has also with established key partnerships which have borne fruit; a recent example being the collaboration with SCASPA (St. Christopher Air & Sea Port Authority) for the construction of a bus shelter across from Pogson Medical Complex. SPIRIT is now the single largest funder of community development projects in Sandy Point, and its ‘SPIRIT Pillar of Excellence Award’ has won acclaim at the Sandy Point High School (now the Charles E. Mills Secondary School).
SANDY POINT BENEVOLENT SOCIETY 231-10 LINDEN BOULEVARD JAMAICA, NY 11411 FROM THE OFFICE OF THE public relations officer (267) 664-2394 stewart.williams@spbsinc.org OR stewartwilliams@dow.com
In receiving this award, SPIRIT joins a select slate of community icons including the revered first principal of the Sandy Point High School, Rev. R. Joseph Manchester and local scholars like Professor H.E. Dr. Simon B. Jones- Hendrickson and scientist Dr. Allan Somersall.
Other Awardees for this year are the legendary Sandy Point High School principal, Mr. William V. A. Hodge, calypso icon and former History teacher at Sandy Point High School, Singing Jackie ( Jacqueline Hazel Leader) and Dr. Edward Griffin. A SPIRIT delegation will accept the award later this year on August 31 at the SPBS Awards Banquet in New York’s exquisite Eastwood Manor Banquet Hall.
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