Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Community Development and Culture,??Shirley Farnum, receives the airline tickets from Caribbean Airline Sales Executive, Veena Rattan-King. Looking on (from left to right) is
National Coordinator, Curtis Gibbons; Attendant of the Year, Shonn Boyce; and Parish Ambassadors,
Juanita Rock and Kevin Stuart.
The most outstanding Parish Ambassadors for 2008, Juanita Rock and Kevin Stuart will be heading to the United States from this Sunday, June??7 to meet and greet members of the Barbadian community in New York.
They will be accompanied by the Attendant of the Year, Shonn Boyce and National Coordinator of the Community Independence Celebrations Secretariat (CICS), Curtis Gibbons.
Speaking during a presentation ceremony of airline tickets this morning, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Community Development and Culture, Shirley Farnum thanked Caribbean Airlines for its support of the CICS programme, noting that projects such as these could not survive without some sort of public/private sector partnership.
"This is one of the things we would like to continue stressing – public/ private sector cooperation – because unless we can pool our resources and work together, I don’t think we will get the very best results for the country, or for the programme," she said.
Mr. Gibbons pointed out that the week-long trip would serve as an opportunity to promote the Community Independence Celebrations programme at the international level and to inform Barbadians living abroad of plans for the upcoming independence celebrations.
"There is always a thirst for knowledge about the programme overseas and what we are doing for independence. So we are … selling the programme while simultaneously affording the ambassadors and attendant the opportunity to interact with our brothers and sisters in these jurisdictions," the CICS Coordinator explained.
This is the tenth year the Parish Ambassadors have travelled on overseas assignments having previously toured Miami, Florida; Ontario, Canada and the United Kingdom.