St. Maarten will participate in
debate competition in St. Kitts
PHILIPSBURG--The Hyacinth Richardson Educational Awareness Foundation for the fourth year is preparing about twenty students of three high schools on the island to travel to St. Kitts to take part in the Leeward Islands Debate Competition.
So far a group of students from St. Dominic High, St. Maarten Academy and Milton Peters College (MPC) will be travelling on February 28 and will debate on the second night, February 29.
If St. Maarten wins the first round, it will compete on the third night. Winning the three sessions that night will make it the overall winner of the competition.
All St. Maarten students will function as one team: St. Maarten Academy is collecting and documenting extensive research on the topic “Vocational qualification is far more viable than a university degree”; St. Dominic on the topic “Combating the spread of HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean requires the decriminalization of both homosexuality and the commercial sex trade”; and MPC on the topic “The absentee and/or negligent father is mainly responsible for the proliferation of gang activity.”
The islands participating in this prestigious competition, which has been organised annually for 37 years, will be Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Nevis, St. Kitts and Montserrat. Approximately 180 to 185 persons will be travelling from these islands to represent their nations.
St. Maarten’s delegation is a lot smaller, because of the cost associated with travel and preparations. According to foundation President Richardson, the estimated budget is about US $13,000. The foundation will be purchasing the formal wear for participants and will give them an etiquette course.
The foundation is calling on the public to assist the students by any means to make this trip possible. It has sent out 30 to 40 letters to local businesses requesting some financial assistance. So far, The Cliff and St. Maarten Ports Services have responded.
The foundation recently held a fundraising event and said the outcome had been reasonable: The first place winner of the fundraising raffle drawn on December 31 was Jason Davis, who won a NAf. 4,200 shopping spree at Cake House Supermarket. Shanira Richardson placed second, winning a laptop. Stephan Joseph, son of recently deceased Philippa Panthier, collected on behalf of his mother the third prize NAf. 350 toward school fees.
St. Maarten will host this competition in 2009. Founder of the competition George Irish will be a special guest at the competition next year. St. Maarten won this competition the first time it participated four years ago. Participants this year are showing much confidence and diligently making preparations to take home the winner’s trophy.
