Ex-Police Association USA holds banquet, awards ceremony

After a few years absence, the New York based St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) Ex-Police Association USA held its fund-raising function in the form of a banquet and awards ceremony.

The event, which was staged on May 20 at the Tropical Ballroom Paradise on Utica Avenue, Brooklyn, New York, marked the 36th anniversary of the association.”{{more}}

Receiving the Special Recognition Award was Vaughn Toney, while Diamond Awards were given to long-standing members – Godfrey Pitt and Beresford Latham, with Standard Shippers receiving the Corporate Citizen’s Award.

Also, Charles Jordan received a special award – the President’s Award.

Speaking after the event, president Arden Tannis stated that while the venture was challenging, it was being used as a “base to re-establish [themselves] as an organization that is front and centre…The police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.

“It might not have been the financial success, but it has the potential for a great marketing tool,” Tannis noted.

Incorporated as a nonprofit organization in the state of New York, on May 15, 1980, the SVG Ex-Police Association USA was formed out of the accidental death in 1978 of one of their own, Alpheus Diamond, a “young, vigilant, promising” serving member of the Royal SVG Police Force, who met his death accidentally in New York, USA.

Some of the notable services included assisting serving and former police officers and their families in time of illness and death in St Vincent and the Grenadines and the USA, as well as the installation of a communication system in a public school in SVG.

The association has also made numerous contributions towards disaster relief in SVG and New York; financial contributions and donations of clothing to various churches, charities and individuals in the USA and St Vincent and the Grenadines and assisted in educating children of current and former police officers.

The Ex-Police Association USA also facilitated the historic visit of a contingent of Caribbean law enforcement officers from New York to the SVG Police Force.

On that visit, some expertise was exchanged and the basis was laid for collaboration in training and association with the New York Police Department (NYPD) and the Royal St Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force.

A meeting between Commissioner Keith Miller of the SVG Police Force and Commissioner Raymond Kelly of the NYPD in NY 2008 was fruit of this collaboration.

And come July, the next event planned is a family day, bringing officers and their families together, with the association also planning to contribute to the Police Youth Club camp in SVG.

The keynote speaker at the event was real estate operator Don Providence, while brief remarks came from Consul General Selmon Walters and Lavern Mc Donald Thompson, president of COSAGO.

The banquet and award ceremony was held under the theme “Partnering with corporate citizens making a difference in our Community.”