Dear Source:
On May 16, 2010, Mothers Against Guns Inc., Virgin Islands Chapter, and Jason Carroll Memorial Fund Inc. held the Seventh Annual Walk/ Run Against Gun Violence in the Virgin Islands. Sources reported that over Seven Hundred individuals participated in the event.
Because of the support from the Virgin Islands community, we were able to have a successful event, and to raise enough money to help a Virgin Islands youth go to college. This year, the recipient of the Jason Carroll Memorial one-year full tuition scholarship at University of the Virgin Islands is Kristell Joseph, a graduating senior at Charlotte Amalie School. In the past, individuals from CAHS, Antilles and St. Peters and Paul have won the scholarship. UVI chose Ms. Joseph as the winner for writing the best essay entitled "How the Virgin Islands will stop excessive violence in its community.” To date, because of the support of the community and our sponsors and donors, we have been able to give out more than Twenty Eight Thousand Dollars in scholarships to help our scholarship winners.
A big thank you goes out to Governor John deJongh for proclaiming May 16, 2010 as Crime and Gun Violence Prevention Day and for addressing the participants in the Walk/Run. We thank the First Lady, Cecile deJongh for reading the proclamation and, also participating in the Walk/Run. We also thank Chief of Police Rodney Querrard for his address to the participants.
We would like to take this opportunity to also thank our sponsors, Elizabeth Jane’s the Silver Source, St. Thomas Radiology Associates, Fintrac LLC, Innovative and the 284 Connection. They helped to make the event happen, and as usual contributed to the success of the event in so many ways. St. Thomas Radiology, Fintrac, and the Silver Source have been sponsors of the event in the past. We welcome on board Innovative and the 284 Connection as sponsors of the event for this year.
We would also like to recognize donors who gave sums for this event, including Joel Holt, Esq., P.C., West Indian Company, First Bank Virgin Islands, Dudley, Topper and Feuerzeig, Attorney Henry Feuerzeig, Marjorie Rawls Roberts, P.C., Mr. Cornelius Bass, and Cranston Dottin Laboratory and Dr. Lorna Young Wright. Also, we would like to thank First Bank Virgin Islands for their contribution of canvas bags that were given to our participants.
We are also grateful for the donations of beverages and other refreshments from West Indies Company, Bellows, Coca Cola Bottling Co., Cost U Less, St. Thomas Dairies and Chi-cos. We also thank Clarence Hansby, Lt. Francis and the other young men and women of the Civil Air Patrol, St. Thomas Rescue and the Officers of VIPD who helped to make certain that we would have a smoothly run and safe event.
A special thank you goes to Therese Hodge and the St. Thomas Association of Road Runners and the volunteers that came out in force to help us on the day of the Walk/Run.
We also want to thank the members of Mothers Against Guns who helped to make the Walk/Run a reality, including Dr. Ida White, Attorney Archie Jennings and Anita George. We also give special thanks to our scholarship recipients, who assisted us including, Kirwin Hodge and Jamilyah.Christopher Thanks to our son, Jameson, who helped the event in so many ways with the music, sound system and public service announcement and also to our son, Jamaal, and to the Superior Court office staff, Ms. Michen Tah, Rebecca Musarra and Mrs. Angella Williams, and to the Marshal’s Staff including Assistant Marshal Simmonds, Deputy Marshals Aubain and Perez, and especially Deputy Marshal Cheryl Pickering. Thanks to the emcees Pastor Othniel Vanterpool and Alejandro. Prince. Finally, we want to thank Claire Starkey and the Fintrac volunteers, Charon Parker and also, of course Mitchell Neaves, the Director of Major Gifts from UVI for rendering special assistance to the Walk Run this year.
We wish to congratulate the trophy winners in our 8 different age categories for male and females and our overall winners Kyron Correa, the top male runner for the third year, and Ruth Anne David, the top female runner. We also congratulate Charlotte Amalie High School, the school with the most participants, and the Junior Firefighters, repeating as the community organization with the most participants. Our youngest walking participant was Sofia Kappel, age 2, and our most senior participants were Bill Mooney, 72 and Millicent Rivera, 78.
We want to congratulate those individuals and families who demonstrated by walking and running against violence. They were students and parents, teachers, counselors, principals and other persons from all walks of life who made a sacrifice to stand with us against violence in the community. We must have a change of heart and we must change inwardly for true change to occur. With the Grace of God, together as a community, we can win the war against gun violence. Sincerely,
Celia A. Carroll, President
ason Carroll Memorial Fund Inc./ Mothers Against Guns Inc.
