Six Bequia students awarded scholarships

Six students from Bequia were awarded scholarships by the Bequia Mission to assist in their tertiary education.

At a ceremony held at the Clive Tannis playing field on Friday September 29 Carla Ollivierre, Marella Ollivierre, Shirlann Ragguette and Niah Friday were presented cheques to attend the Community College. Nehaul James and Gordon Leonard were granted scholarships for their second year at the SVG Technical College.{{more}}

Zemara Simmons and Sarita Simmons, second year students at the Community and Technical College respectively, received their cheques for the second year.

Chairman of the Mission’s local organizing committee, Sylvester Tannis said that the Bequia Mission, which was formed some 30 years ago by the late Ron and June Armstrong and was reorganized under the leadership of Jerry and Sandra Bird of Canada, continues to offer children of under privileged parents on the island the opportunity to receive quality education as the finances allowed.

Parents were urged to be considerate and accept the fact that while many need help, others are worse off, and their opportunity will come. Twenty-one other students were granted assistance to aid in the purchase of uniforms and other school supplies.

Morrie Hercules also counseled the students and urged them to be diligent and make good use of the opportunity they were given.

He said: “one of the evils that is pervasive in our world today is ingratitude. In our society, ingratitude is related to what I call ‘selective amnesia’. We forget what we want to forget or we conveniently forget”.

He added that the “freeness mentality syndrome” seemed to be ever present in society where people believe that they must get everything free and perhaps ingratitude was a byproduct of the freeness mentality syndrome.

“I wish to state emphatically, unapologetically, without any ambiguity that nothing in life is really ever free. Somehow, someone somewhere has to pay for it. In this case, the assistance given, though distributed by the Bequia Mission Local Management Committee, comes from funds raised and distributed by the Bequia Mission Parent Body in Canada,” he said.

Hercules said that the recipients should show gratitude by sending a thank you note or card and using the assistance wisely.

Many former recipients have become success stories.

The Bequia Mission also carries out a feeding program for shut-ins and school children, and offers assistance in some medical situations.