INTERACT CLUB OF ROAD TOWN JOINS THE PARADE!
Each year on the first Monday in August, the British Virgin Islands holds its Emancipation celebrations, climaxing in a colorful parade of floats and troops all accompanied by a rich mix of Caribbean music. This year in June, the Interact Club of Road Town, a Club sponsored by the Rotary Club of Road Town, celebrated its 10th Anniversary, and this year is the 50th Anniversary of Interact worldwide. To commemorate both these Anniversaries, the Interact Club of Road Town decided to enter a float into the Parade on Festival Monday, under the theme of “Celebrating 10 years of Service Above Self” and we had T-Shirts printed with the Interact Logo and theme.
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Promised that we would be provided with a float built to our design by the Festival Committee, on the Sunday afternoon, we met a bare truck and no sign of timber. Help! Help came in the form of Rotary Past President Charles Benjamin, who quickly took control and in two hours or so, we had the structure of our float built; then under the experienced guidance of Interact Adviser Tiffany Scatliffe, we started to decorate the truck, mostly with the aid of car headlights. Our colour theme was of course yellow and blue. After a lot of feverish activity by a number of Interactors and Rotarians, by 11pm we had the truck decorated, with the Interact President Altisha Crandall seen crawling on the roof tacking down the glitter.
On the Monday morning, we had more work to do, finishing off, adjusting some of the work of the previous night, and then waiting to join the parade in our allotted position. Once the parade got under way, somewhat late but this is the Caribbean, we moved slowly down the parade route, handing out candy and beads as we passed through the crowded streets. Our Interact Club is well known in the BVI for its face painting, which is a major source of community funds for the Club, so we decided that we would offer to paint the faces of some of the children we met along the way, and painted in excess of 200 children by the time we reached the end of the parade some 3 hours later! That was a lot of faces. And all for free. If the people of the BVI hadn’t heard of Interact before, by the end of the day, the many hundreds of persons thronging the street most assuredly had. It was a most tiring but inspiring day and the many Interactors who were busy applying the paint hardly noticed their fatigue, until the end, when they collapsed exhausted.
As if that was not enough, two days later we joined the East End Parade. However, before we could do that, we had quite a few running repairs to attend to, but after some judicious patching and tacking, we were as good as new; well almost. To keep their hand in, on both days, the Interactors spent some time painting each other before letting themselves loose on the children. Before we got under way, we were honoured to have the Governor join us for 10 minutes or so, (he declined to have his face painted), but joined members in a photo opportunity. Again the float was packed with young kids, smiling faces as they surrendered themselves to the attention of the Interactors. With a shorter route we still managed to paint at least 120 beaming faces, and all along the way we were handing out bottles of water and candy. Another exhausting day, but very satisfying. We certainly fulfilled our fifth part of the 4-Way Test – Let It Be Fun!
A great way to celebrate our Anniversary, spread the name of Interact and the good will of Rotary. Next year we will be bigger, better and bolder.