The outpour of long pent-up emotion, pride, sense of ancestral belonging, togetherness and hope, dominated the event held on labor-day, Saturday, May 1, 2010.Those who attended the event, are still in awe of the inspirational impact it has left behind, as well as the significance in terms of the inevitable role the natives of this island are set to play in bringing about changes favoring their interest in the development of the island.
The oftentimes heard 'mantra', that its was 'done' too late to bring about positive changes for the people of the island, is making way for the a thinking.
Yes, we can and certainly yes we will !
The ceremony was organized by the grass root St. Martin nation building & unification movement in collaboration with the New Era Foundation.
As part of the mission of this new pro-St. Martin partnership, 'Strengthening and preserving our St. Martin identity, unity & way of life', this ceremony was organized to be the first, in a series of ongoing public activities, which are expected to awaken the feeling of belonging of all native-indigenous St. Martiners to their country.
Based on the impact, these future functions are expected to have on the St. Martin community in general, the organizers decided to first, out of respect and love for the contribution made by many St. Martin ancestors, to honor them posthumously by offering a token of recognition to one of their descendants.
During the ceremony which was brilliantly chaired by Mr. Jeffrey RICHARDSON as M.C. and assisted by Mr. Christopher EMANUELLE, Mr. Leopold JAMES did the opening remarks.
As was to be expected, keynote-speaker, historian Ms. Daniella JEFFRY, held the audience spellbound by her knowledge of th history of the island.
Clearly there is a very good reason why many consider her as St. Martin's own 'grande-dame' and certainly a native St. Martin icon and landmark.
Stealing the show, was 9-year old Hanae PETERSON, a grand-daughters of Mrs. Aline CHOISIE, school-principal and former Councilor on French Saint Martin.
When Hanae witness the handing out of the certificates and heard the recipients expressing appreciation, she whispered into her grand-ma's ear; 'Mamy can I say something too ?'
What this little and obviously, very talented young girls then told the audience certainly touched the souls of all, when she ended by saying that she loved St. Martin more than anything else.
This gave all a sense of pride, inspiration and relief that there is great hope for the natives of this island to preserve their ancestral-heritage and rights as host population of this country.
Certificates of recognition were given posthumously to;
Felix CHOISIE, Louis-Constant FLEMING sr, Jean-Luc HAMLET, Xavier Vanburing JAMES, Atley LARMONIE, Wallace PETERSON, Jules ARTSEN, Simon JEFFRY, Alberic RICHARDS, ALbert ADAMS,
James Theophilus PRIEST, Joseph LAKE , Lilian STEPHEN, Lionel SCOT, Alexander RICHARDSON.
The representatives of the recipients each received an autographed copy of the book '1963 A Landmark Year in Saint Martin' by Daniella JEFFRY, who also had the honor to gave out the certificates.
In addition, all receives a copy of a DVD with 4 national songs of the island, St. Martin is my home by Lino and the Hardways, Oh Sweet St. Martin land by father Kemp, Rally around the national flag, and St. Martin will live on by Jeffrey RICHARDSON.
Mr. Leopold JAMES, handed out a certificate of recognition to Daniella JEFFRY for the contributions made by her late father Mr. Simon JEFFRY.
All in attendance, including president Frantz GUMBS, heaped praise on Leopold for having consistently been the voice of the native-St. Martin people for almost 30 years.
Although he could not attend in person, Governor Franklyn RICHARDS, sent Mr. Leopold JAMES an email and also called him the day before the event to extend his best wishes for the event and to express his deep appreciation for the work being done to restore the pride and dignity of the St. Martin people.This, the Governor stressed, is now more than ever needed, if we are to build a sustainable country St. Maarten and to attract the right people for the process.
In ending all those involved one way or the other are thanked for making this event a historical one and a great success.
Clearly, this ceremony has completely lived up and even surpassed the expectation that it will contribute significantly to a paradigm-shift, in which St. Martiners will claim their rightful role as host population of this island.
In addition, this ceremony has also laid a very powerful foundation for another event, which will take place on May 15, 2010 and is organized by Billy D. HAMLET o emphasize the indivisible one-nesss and traditional way of life of the native St. Martin people.
For copies of the DVD of the event, one can contact Mr. Jeffrey RICHARDSON at 5221574 or 5860043 or at email;This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
