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| Minister of Culture, Stephen Lashley, receiving a cheque from the Royal Bank of Canada’s Relationship Manager in Business Banking, Seth Millar, while Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Shirley Farnum, and National Coordinator of the Community Independence Celebrations Secretariat, Curtis Gibbons, look on.??(G. Brewster/BGIS) |
The contribution of all parish ambassadors who have worked "extremely hard" leading up to the Spirit of the Nation show will be acknowledged when it comes off tomorrow, Saturday, November 19, at the Wildey Gymnasium.
That is the promise from Minister of Culture, Stephen Lashley, who said the Ministry would stick to the pledge made earlier this year to recognise the efforts of those involved in the competition. "We will hail our winners and runners up, but also the contribution of all of our parish ambassadors … and this will continue to happen as we go forward," he assured.
Mr. Lashley made the comments today at his Warrens office after accepting a cheque for $10,000 for the Spirit of the Nation Show from the Relationship Manager of Business Banking at Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), Seth Millar.
The Minister thanked RBC for its "continuous show of faith and confidence" in the show, adding "once our dedicated sponsors continue to show confidence in this product, then it is encouragement to other prospective sponsors to come on board.
"The contribution we have received from RBC will certainly go a long way in boosting the confidence level, not only of persons in the Community Independence Celebrations Secretariat, but … our young people, because all of our ambassadors are young people and this project continues to fuel their energies and imagination."
Mr. Lashley described the Spirit of the Nation show as a big hit with young people. He added that the parish ambassadors had worked hard and were eager to execute their game plan.
"I believe the event will be very keenly contested. The focus of this year’s activity was energy conservation … This has actually created a new awareness among our communities, as well as among our young people, in relation to how we value alternative energy and how we consume electricity. And, we are happy about this, since we believe that if we are going to innovate in relation to power consumption and alternative energy, those innovations are going to come from our young people," he suggested.
Mr. Millar said RBC was "thankful" to be a part of the Spirit of the Nation Show and promised the bank’s continued support going forward. This is the sixth year the bank has been supporting the show.