Clarendon honours 21 on Heroes Day
Published:Thursday | October 20, 2022 | 12:06 AM
Twenty-one of Clarendon’s outstanding citizens were honoured on Monday, National Heroes Day, at a civic ceremony held on the grounds of the Clarendon Parish Court.
Held under the theme ‘Reigniting Greatness Through Our Heritage’, the event was organised by the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission’s parish office with the award categories being Education, Agriculture and Fisheries, Health, Commerce and Industry and Community.
The awardees were, Education – Imogene Stephenson, Rebecca Pinnock, Pearlyn Clarke, Clinton Wilson, Enid Sinclair, Vytell Barnett, Christine Monroe Walters, Beverly Smith Williams and Hyacinth Grose.
In the category of Agriculture and Fisheries, Pauline Givans and Mary Williams were the awardees. Retired midwife Elaine Robinson was the sole awardee in the Health category, so too was Edwin Singh in the Commerce and Industry category.
Copping community service awards were Paulette Neil, Josephine Coleman, Baldvin McKenzie, Carmen Pusey, Rajae Lewis, Terrel Pencle, Lascelle Simmonds and Barry Saunders.
The 21 awardees are the first from a batch of 60 that the parish will be recognising. The committee will continue to accept nominations through the celebration of Jamaica’s 60th anniversary of Independence.
Paulette Neil, who relocated from St Elizabeth to Clarendon, where she taught at Kemps Hill High School, said the day she joined the Lions Club, she was hooked. She has been serving in that organisation for over 40 years, and for 37 of those years she ensured that homeless persons were fed on Sundays.
“This award has humbled me again (she received the Melvin Jones Fellow award as a Lions Club member in 2012), and it is because of my childhood upbringing in St Elizabeth. From day one, I was told to share and to care. This has always been a part of me,” she said.
Baldvin McKenzie, who has been serving in Longville Park, said volunteerism is in his blood. He joined the Red Cross when he was just 12 years old, and said that over the years he was always forming youth clubs.
“This award has made me even more committed, and it is saying to me that someone out there recognise my work, and I appreciate it a lot,” he said.
Rajae Lewis, founder and president of the Live Love Laugh Youth Foundation, was awarded for his outstanding contribution to community service. He has worked in multiple communities engaging, mentoring and guiding the youth.
Expressing a passion for youth and community development, Lewis dedicated the award to the young people impacted by his foundation and those who also motivated him.
“It is truly an honour ... it will be a motivation to continue to impact lives,” he shared.
Christine Monroe Walters, principal of Chapelton Primary School, said she was humbled by the award as she now realises that there are persons who have seen, or are seeing the work she is selflessly doing in nurturing and educating the nation’s children.
“I have been an educator for over 27 years and it is something I do with pride, not expecting a reward at all. So for someone to say I deserved such an award, I can only say thank you, and I am humbled by it,” she said.