The Brooklyn-based umbrella Vincentian group in america, Council of St. Vincent and the Grenadines Organizations, U.S.A., Inc. (COSAGO), on Sunday, Oct. 27 honored its former president Laverne McDowald-Thompson and the perennial Vincentian mas band in Brooklyn, Mas Productions Limitless, throughout its Gala 45thIndependence Anniversary Luncheon, commemorating St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ independence anniversary, at Russo’s on the Bay within the Howard Seaside, Queens.
“I acknowledge our honorees, Laverne Mc-Dowald-Thompson, for her excellent humanitarian efforts locally and Mas Productions Limitless for selling the humanities and tradition, significantly among the many youth,” stated COSAGO President Crispin Friday, who succeeded McDowald-Thompson.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines Consul Normal to america Rondy McIntosh, underneath whose auspices the Gala Luncheon was held, applauded COSAGO for recognizing “these amongst us who play very important roles in holding the Vincy spirit alive.
“Let me take this chance to congratulate your honorees, Mrs. Laverne McDowald-Thompson and Mas Productions Limitless, for his or her love and enduring sacrifice,” McIntosh stated.
McDowald-Thompson, who served as COSAGO president for 15 successive years and is now vp, is a former public faculty trainer in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
After migrating to america in 1990, she labored full-time. She attended school within the evenings, graduating cum laude with a Bachelor’s diploma in early childhood schooling from Metropolis Faculty of New York (CUNY).
McDowald-Thompson stated she began volunteering and giving again to her group on the tender age of 15.
She stated she started her management position within the St. David’s Anglican Church in her native city of Chateaubelair in St. Vincent and the Grenadines as a Sunday Faculty trainer. She was president of the Anglican Youth Motion (A.Y.M.) and secretary of the North Leeward Lecturers Union Department in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
A really energetic and devoted member of her group, McDowald-Thompson stated she works “diligently within the constructing and selling” her communities, each within the Diaspora and at house.
Earlier than turning into president of COSAGO, she was vp and chairperson of the Church Service Committee for 2 years.
Along with being COSAGO’s extant vp, she is chairperson of the Fundraising Committee and serves on the Brooklyn-based SVG Aid Committee of New York and the Vincy Day U.S.A. Committee.
She additionally served as a member of the Brooklyn-based Caribbean American Renal Failure Aid Fund, based in 2002 to help Caribbean nationals affected by renal illness, and on the SVG Diaspora Committee of New York.
As president of the Chateaubelair Improvement Group (C.D.O.), McDowald-Thompson leads efforts to offer academic assist to youngsters and humanitarian support to natives in her hometown.
As well as, she is an energetic member of Bethany Deliverance Church of God in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, the place she leads a number of committees, together with fundraising and benevolence.
“Standing right here at present, it’s a privilege; it’s a privilege not as a result of I’ve the precise or as a result of I’m a member of the Council of St. Vincent and the Grenadines Group, or as a result of I’m being honored on the annual celebration of independence of our nation, SVG, it’s as a result of God has stored me,” McDowald-Thompson, who was launched by her shut buddy, Curlina Hills, an lawyer and govt member of COSAGO and C.D.O., informed the ceremony on Sunday. “So, I wish to start by giving God reward and thanks for all times and for my life’s journey.
“I am joyful that I am in a position to share my life’s journey with my household, my husband Almond ‘The Rabbi’ Thompson; my son, Ramon; my brothers; my sisters; nieces; nephews; in-laws; and mates who grew to become household, and all those that grew to become a part of my life for one motive or the opposite,” she added. “Sure, I’m a mother to many. I’m additionally joyful that I am in a position to share a part of my life’s journey with members of the Council of St. Vincent and the Grenadines Organizations, U.S.A., Inc. (COSAGO), and all my mates and supporters within the Vincentian Diaspora, a lot of whom I haven’t met or knew from house. My involvement locally introduced us collectively.
“I discover it fairly becoming to just accept this award in your behalf as a result of, with out you being part of my journey or the expertise within the Vincentian communities, giving your assist throughout my years of service as president of COSAGO, all this could not have been attainable,” McDowald-Thompson continued. “It’s all of us coming collectively, working collectively as a crew.”
Mas Productions Limitless (M.P.U.) was based in 1992 by a bunch of Vincentians, whose main objective was to “reintroduce a Vincentian presence within the annual Labor Day Caribbean Carnival, and an general objective of selling all issues cultural within the Vincentian group in New York,” in accordance with co-founder, band chief, and designer Wesley Millington.
He stated M.P.U. produced the primary mas band in 1993 and has participated within the Brooklyn-based West Indian American Day Carnival yearly since, aside from the 2 years that New York Metropolis was plagued with the COVID-19 pandemic.
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This has made M.P.U. the longest-running Vincentian mas band in New York and, as a matter of truth, one of many oldest steady taking part bands within the New York Carnival,” stated Millington, who was launched on the gala affair by O’Brien Simmons, an govt member of COSAGO.
Millington stated M.P.U. has additionally participated in New York’s Lengthy Island Carnival and has produced costumes for St. Vincent and the Grenadines Group of Pennsylvania (SVGOP) for the Philadelphia Carnival.
He stated M.P.U. has additionally had “a supportive relationship” since its inception with the Brooklyn-based Dynamite Calypso Tent, the lone Vincentian calypso tent in North America.
“As our title, Mas Productions Limitless, suggests, membership and individuals have by no means been restricted to solely Vincentians,” he stated. “Over the lifetime of the group, it has included members of different nationalities and continues to benefit from the assist of individuals from different nationalities, together with a long-running affiliation with the New York Belize Committee.”
Moreover, Millington stated M.P.U. has had “affiliation” with a number of members of the Vincentian mas group, together with Ricardo “Puzzle” Grant, now M.P.U.’s resident builder; Kamal Aleem, previously of Wizards Mas Band; Junior “Melbourne” Constance; Ozzie Constance; and the late Vincentian mas designer and band chief Julian “Pilling” Pollard.
“Mas Productions Limitless appreciates the assist they’ve loved to this point and appears ahead to the continued assist of the group as they attempt to take care of a presence within the cultural lifetime of the Vincentian Diaspora,” Millington stated.
DJs SupaEyes and E.Z. Sounds and artistes Dennis Bowman and Abena Amory entertained patrons at Sunday’s ceremony.
The Gala Independence Anniversary Luncheon was the climax of celebratory actions in New York, organized along side the New York Consulate Normal and the Diaspora Committee of New York. These actions additionally included an Ecumenical Church Service, a flag-raising ceremony, a ship experience, and the lighting of the Empire State Constructing within the nationwide colours — blue, inexperienced, and gold — of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
