March 23, 2008 — In a departure from tradition, first lady Cecile deJongh and her band of orange-shirted "Some Bunny Cares" helpers hosted an Easter program Saturday for St. John youths at Julius E. Sprauve School.
DeJongh said that kids live in such a competitive world already, she didn't want them to compete for Easter eggs at the traditional Easter egg hunt.
"Today is about every kid getting an Easter basket," she said.
And the baskets came with healthy snacks like fruit juice and a fruit cup as well as a miniature book, in keeping with an "educational and healthy" atmosphere.
The program began with a traditional Anansi story by St. John's Faye Fredericks. In this story, Ananasi, who is a magical spider, went to Trunk Bay with the tiger. While the tiger was swimming in the water, the spider ate most of the tiger's lunch. Fearing the tiger's wrath, he headed back to Cruz Bay, stopping at Jumbie Beach along the way to teach the monkeys a song.
"It's lunchtime and I eat a tiger's stew, and the tiger didn't know," Fredericks and the youths sang.
Although the tiger accused the monkeys of eating his lunch, he believed them when they said they didn't do it. The tiger went off in hot pursuit of the spider, almost catching up with him when the spider crawled up into the ceiling in his Cruz Bay house.
And the moral of this tale?
"Don't get distracted," master of ceremonies Merle Fenton said.
And she told the youths that if they see something belonging to someone else, they should give it back to them.
The kids were also entertained by a fashion show, a skit about Easter, quadrille and salsa dancers, and the Unity Pantomime Group. All but the Eudora Kean High School drama students who performed the skit hailed from Sprauve School.
Additionally, the Love City Leapers, clad in fluorescent green, showed the ropes to the several hundred parents and children gathered in the auditorium for the party. The Leapers proved that practice pays off as they performed astounding jump rope tricks, including one called the Chinese Reel.
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