Twenty-six fourth form students from across the country have been presented with the 2013 George Phillips Excellence award, in recognition of their academic and extracurricular achievements.{{more}}

The George Phillips Excellence award ceremony and luncheon, which is hosted annually by the Rotary Club of St Vincent, was held at the Kingstown Methodist Church Hall on June 6.

Guest speaker Gordon Shallow congratulated students on their achievement.

“The award is showing that you are the crème de la crème…indicative of your hard work and excellent track record, both academically and otherwise,” Shallow said to the awardees.

Shallow, a plant pathologist, urged students to formulate a goal for the future, and a plan of how to achieve it.

“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail,” he quoted.

“Seek always to be the best, even in the midst of life’s challenges”.

District Governor for Rotary Clubs Stephen Ramroop was also present at the awards.

Ramroop applauded the Rotary Club of St Vincent for their success in putting on yet another awards ceremony and luncheon.

The District Governor told the students that they are not alone in their endeavours.

He told the story of a vehicle that got stuck in a ditch. A man with a horse offered to help. The horse’s owner called two other names before he addressed the horse and told him to pull. When asked why, the man explained that the horse was blind and had he known that he was pulling by himself, he would not have done it.

“The story behind that is that we are all in this together; we all depend on each other,” Ramroop said. “People like you will always have people like us”.

Past president of the Rotary Club of St Vincent Jules Ferdinand presented a slide show on the accomplishments of George Phillips, after whom the award is named. Phillips, who was the first president of the Rotary Club of St Vincent, was described as a humanitarian, excellent scholar and outstanding athlete.

The awards were presented by Ruby, Phillip’s widow and Ramroop.(BK)