Charlestown Nevis (September 21, 2006)
Bath United Sports and Social Club on National Heroes Day held a cocktail reception in honour of its senior citizens of the Bath Village Community at the Bath Community Centre.
The Club, which was recently formed, staged the event as the first of many activities planned for the ensuing year. President of the Club, Mrs Karen Claxton Amory expressed her profound gratitude to the organisers of the event as she welcomed all to the gathering. Nevis’ Minister of Social Development, the Hon Hensley Daniel congratulated the Bath community for taking such an initiative. He noted that the activity was a form of saying thanks for their (senior citizens) involvement in building the country.
“I want to say that I believe that this activity is a way of saying to you thank you for building a generation of young people who had manners, respect and discipline for other people,” said Mr Daniel. “The little that is left is because you gave it to some of us who have passed it on to others, so I want to thank you profoundly for that.”
Minister Daniel, who is also the Area Representative, noted that his Ministry was working on providing training for caregivers on the island. “One of the things we want to do is provide training for caregivers, those persons who are looking after you at home,” he told the senior citizens.
“We want to train them to look after old people as oppose to see them as some disgusting grandmother they have home to look after. We want to train them to be able to treat you with respect and with decency so that you would live longer. We also want to ensure that we could provide for some home help care for elderly person who are unable to move about,” said the Social Minister.
One of persons paying tribute to the seniors was the Hon Malcolm Guishard, Area Representative in the Federal Assembly. He called the senior citizens heroes and added, “I like to look at our heroes as the person who would have contributed to the development of our country. I too would like to pay special tribute to all of our heroes, those who have passed and those who are still alive. Without any doubt, all of you, in your own rights are heroes,” said Mr. Guishard.
The seniors were entertained by the younger generation with songs and dances and received a token of appreciation. A minute silence was observed for senior citizens within the community who died within the last year just before the club came to fruition. Ms Patricia Claxton chaired the ceremony.