With a mixed bag of colorful and in one case risque costumes, Jus' Action troupe danced up a storm to Jam Band's "Inspection Lane."

The Gypsys, close to being the most colorful of all the troupes, danced down Main Street setting off their very own brand of "fireworks."

The 18th annual Gatorade Carnival Mile was run Saturday morning through downtown St. Thomas. The 132 participants came up Main Street to the finish line at Roosevelt Park led by George Jules who captured his 3rd victory in a time of 4:55. Ruth Ann David won the women's division in 5:55 in what has become one of STAR's (St. Thomas Association of Roadrunners) biggest events.
For the first time youth outnumbered the adults. Fifty-five youngsters and teens completed the race making their age groups the largest in the race. Theodore Luke and Sharvon Charles won the 12 & under divisions with times of 6:40 and 7:26 respectively. Dwayne Allen won the 13-19 male group in 5:35. Two-time women's champion Evelise Gomez of St. Croix, who recently returned from a gold medal performance at the Penn Relays won the women's 13-19 division in 6:09.
Other male age group winners were 20-29: George Willock 5:35; 30-39: Florida resident and former STAR member Harrie Olsthoorn 5:13; 40-49: Greg Johnson of St. Croix who was also second overall 5:12. Senior division: Roy Macfarlane 6:53.
Female age group winners were 20-29: Andrea Greaux 7:23; 30-39: Camille McKayle-Stolz 6:25; 40-49: Billie Hodges 6:39; Senior division: Carolyn Davis 8:24.
The event, a fund-raiser for the St. Thomas-St. John Chapter of the American Red Cross, was sponsored for the 8th consecutive year by Gatorade and the West Indies Corporation. All proceeds of the race go directly to the local chapter for use in their programs for disaster relief, AIDS wareness, First Aid / CPR training and many others.
OVERALL WINNERS

MALE – George Jules 4.55
FEMALE – RuthAnn David 5.55


Male – 12 & under

Theodore Luke 6.40
Madison Van Heurck 6.56
Paul Remy 6.57
Francisco Fonseca 7.02
Maurice Harvey 7.08
Jessie Hodges 7.37
Thomas Barrows 7.41
Makenzie Shaw 7.46
Joel Bellot 8.33
Johnny Lenahan 8.40
Dean Chinnery 8.44
Colin Schmidt 8.50
Rahim Benjamin 9.35
Walter Hutchins 9.36
Nathaniel Fuller 9.41
Makeel Rhymer-Morton 10.11
Adam Fuller 10.23
Nate Rosenberg 10.34
William Bailey 10.38
Harry Lenahan 11.34
Christopher Cilliers 15.45

Female – 12 & under

Sharvon Charles 7.23
Charlotte VanHeurck 7.35
Gail Maduro 7.41
Tykela Lee 7.42
Hannah Davis 8.30
Jada Schmidt 10.03
Linsey Cuffy 10.04
Krystal Jeffers 10.09
Seyline Cuffy 10.11
Tina Mullen 10.12
Morgan Rosenberg 11.03
Dylan Rosenberg 11.04
Roya Benjamin 11.10
Francie Lenahan 18.10

Male – 13 to 19

Dwayne Allen 5.35
Jamaal Carroll 5.54
Conn Davis 5.57
Jimmy Marshall 6.05
Luke Neely 6.41
Matthew Driscoll 6.47
Cedrick Anselm 6.55
Ray Ulysess 7.33
William Domonique 7.35
Thomas Kaestner 7.39
Max Bangs 11.07

Female – 13 to 19

Evelise Gomez 6.09
Kady Joseph 6.30
Tyfia Lee 6.39
Aniecia Williams 6.46
Liz Streibich 7.07
Patrice Remy 7.26
Christine Driscoll 7.36
Andi Bailey 8.06
Alisha Lessey 10.09


Male – 20 to 29

George Willock 5.34
Isaac Aronson 6.14

Female – 20 to 29

Andrea Greaux 7.23
Jennifer Feuerbacher 8.47

Male – 30 to 39

Harry Olsthoorn 5.13
Franklyn Victor 5.49
Gar Watson 5.53
Trip Dunville 6.08
Nicholas VanHeurck 6.09
Michaell Carper 6.20
Angel Josiah 6.53
Trevor Velinor 7.03
Lance Manaum 7.05
Robert Golub 7.15

Female 30 to 39

Camille McKayle-Stolz 6.25
Tammy Waters 6.48
Ethlyn Farrell 7.06
Anna Paiewonsky 7.29
Bernadette Kaestner 7.45
Maria VanHeurck 7.48
Monica Upernomall 8.44
Beth Dunville 8.45
Eunice Bedminster 8.47
Bernadette Kreisel 8.49
Brigitte Bornn 8.54
Celeste Connolly 9.09
Shawn McBride 9.28
Elisha Hodge 10.02
Rebecca Brahm 10.30
Beverly Clendenin 11.52
Suzanne Cilliers 15.46
Gwendolyn Wilds 17.39

Male – 40 to 49

Greg Johnson 5.12
Maurice Kurg 5.42
Peter Alter 5.54
Randy Shaw 6.08
Amos Frett 6.12
Frank Jackson 6.32
Roi Simmonds 6.34
Henry Carr 6.42
Daryl Dodson 6.45
Delvin Walters 7.16
Joe Schmidt 10.04
Clifton Williams 14.58
Kevin Lenahan 18.11


Female – 40 to 49

Billie Hodges 6.39
Karen Kivel-Rice 7.51
Carol Lenahan 8.13
Margot Murray 8.38
Lisa Henriques 8.39
Doris Pomeranz 9.06
Lynn Dohm 9.13
Joyce Wensel-Bailey 10.13
Debi Davis 10.41
Jessica Rosenberg 11.03
Tanya Ward-Benjamin 11.07
Mary Schmidt 12.44
Audria Thomas 17.22


Male – 50 & over

Roy MacFarlane 6.51
Robert Collins 7.03
Roy Watlington 7.05
Jim Trilling 9.02
Donald Pomeranz 9.08
Vince Fuller 10.02
James Carroll 10.50
Rhett Simmonds 14.43

Female – 50 & over

Carolyn Davis 8.15
Toni Thomas 8.24
Sally George 10.06
Susan Edwards 11.16
Judith Grybowski 12.43
Joy Boyd 14.43
Barbara Mason 15.50
Emma Crosse 17.22
Barbara Fugitt 18.09

Academic achievement was in the spotlight as the University of the Virgin Islands St. Thomas campus inducted students into the Golden Key National Honor Society and recognized those who have excelled in their fields of study at recent ceremonies in the campus cafeteria.
A total of 33 students were welcomed into Golden Key in the UVI chapter's 6th annual induction ceremony on Saturday, April 29. Inducted as honorary members were English professor Vincent O. Cooper, Social Sciences Division chair Ededet A. Iniama, UVI vice president for administration and finance Malcolm C. Kirwan, and Nana-Baby Children's Home director Louise Larcheveaux-Ali.
At the ceremony, two UVI students, senior Deborah Taylor and junior James Bernier Jr. received $500 scholarships funded by the Ford Foundation.
At the 36th annual Academic Awards Program on Sunday, April 30, the top-ranked students in each academic division were recognized, along with those who participated in the Freshman Mentoring and UVI Mentorship programs, and those invited to be listed in "Who's Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges."
The Barnett Frank Class Awards for a male and a female student in each class went to seniors K'wasi Barnes and Sidris Phipps, juniors Loi'y Mustafa and Valencia Wilkinson, sophomores Richard Brazier and Celeste Mosher, and freshmen Kurt Williams and Nicole Kellum.
Also recognized were winners of the Boynes Scholarship (Zaida Castro), the Industrial Development Scholarship (Lynda Edmead, April Hurlston, Zoraida Martin, Tamisha Ottley, Cornel Phillip, Janelle Rossington and Johnathan Tucker), the Medical Air Services Scholarship (Fyama Wenner), the V.I. Rum Scholarship (Cira Burke, Jacqueline Leader, Mary Macedon, Diana Jackson and Diane Richardson), the Wheatley Scholarship (Pamela Clarke) and the William Koier Scholarship (Kerstin Petty).

I am a local living in Houston, Tex. I am a licensed Texas peace officer working as a Harris County Sheriff's deputy. I am currently a candidate for sheriff here in Texas. I have also served as a police chief in a small town.
I am a licensed Texas police instructor. I am also the author of a police training manual that has been approved for academy use by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officers Standards and Education.
I have read the Source stories of the officer-civilian confrontations on [all three] islands. While I am not in a position to make a pro- or against-actions statement, I can offer a solution to the apparent escalation of controversy between the locals and non-locals.
The situation there in the territory is hard to justify. It is especially hard when you look at what caused the incidents to spiral out of control.
Texas has the same problems that you have. We have had officers killing people. Officers shooting people. Officers framing people. We have had cases of racial profiling and racial complaints resulting in civil rights violations.
As a matter of fact, there is a law in Texas addressing "Official Oppression." This law simply states that any person in official authority who use his or her position to intimidate or oppress a civilian goes to jail. If the person is a police officer or elected official, he or she gets charged with a felony.
The bottom line here is that officers often need to be re-educated. Our island society is one where -– right or wrong — the majority rules. The first step to solving and preventing these problems in the future is to re-evaluate the situation and design a program of learning for the officers.
But the officers on the street must not be the only ones attending these classes. We must remember that sludge rolls downhill. Attitudes on the bottom sometimes begin at the top. I am not saying it is the case, but it is found many times to be.
The State of Texas had to come to grips with the issue of cultural diversity. It is no longer the norm to beat a homosexual, black or Hispanic or anyone not from Texas.
We had a case where a sergeant and another officer patrolling a homosexual district in their squad car. They saw a lone man, evidently a homosexual, and decided to harass him. It got to the point where they ended up beating this man to death. It turned out that their victim was an undercover Houston police officer whose unit was investigating hate crimes against homosexuals by civilians.
Adding to the irony of this case, it came out during the murder trial that the officer with the sergeant was a latent homosexual. He came out of the closet during the trial. He –- and this is important — stated that he went along with the sergeant because he wanted to fit in.
This is the problem with many officers. We tend to not want to ruffle feathers. When I was a street officer, I would tell my rider that if he/she was dirty, I would spill the beans. I would tell them not to do anything around me they did not want repeated. I spent nine months in the academy and I was not going to lose it over their stupidity.
Texas has mandated that all Texas peace officers must take cultural diversity courses once every two years. This has drastically cut down on officers assaulting the public. Perhaps something like this instituted in the islands would help cut down on the negative police-public interactions. It is worth looking into.
I would be willing to take a leave at the request of the V.I.Police Department and come and teach a class. I have conducted over 5,000 hours of in-service education and trained over 4,000 officers. The course I am offering is only 4 to 8 hours long. But it will change a lot the negative happenings in the Police Department.
I am very proud to have been a benefactor of VIPD Police Pre-Cadets training. I have learned a lot since I have been here. I am just trying to give something back to my community. Please click http://www.utexas.edu/cee/dec/tcleose/cultdiv/study.html for more information.

Amid the hoopla and hustle of V.I. Carnival this week, news of the arrest of a children's activities supervisor at a St. Thomas resort on charges of raping a 9-year-old girl got secondary coverage in the local news media.
The accused, also a suspect in another case said to involve a 10-year-old girl, was charged with aggravated rape of the 9-year-old, and according to a Justice Department release, local authorities are also contacting families of other children placed under the defendant's care at the resort.
Keeping in mind that the person accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, the charges are deeply disturbing.
But even more disturbing are the responses of the criminal justice system, government tourism and public relations officials and local and corporate resort authorities.
The Justice Department release describing the arrest and efforts to contact other families who had stayed at the resort stated: "Families residing in the Virgin Islands need not be concerned."
Amy Atkinson, V.I. account supervisor for the territory's mainland public relations agency, Martin Public Relations, was quoted as saying, "Back in the states, unfortunately, you hear about these things in daycare frequently. The whole destination isn't going to be taking the fall for one person." Further, she was quoted, the day after news of the arrest came out, "I have not heard any negative reports from the stateside media. . . St. Thomas is known as being a family-friendly island."
Tourism Commissioner-designate Rafael Jackson was quoted as saying the quick investigation and arrest "speaks well of the concern we have for this kind of occurrence."
Management at the resort in question, the Wyndham Sugar Bay Beach Club, has referred all media questions to management at the Dallas, Tex., corporate headquarters of the Wyndham chain, which manages the resort for private owners. A Wyndham spokesman has said only that it will not comment, "other than to say that we are cooperating with the investigation."
It should be noted that none of these comments consisted of shooting from the hip. They all came from professionals accustomed to communicating with the public and the news media who had time to gather their thoughts before they opened their mouths or typed or approved their releases.
We have a problem here that is bigger than the rape of a child by a person entrusted with the care of children.
Families in the Virgin Islands need, indeed, be concerned. If not for their own children, who by implication would not have come in contact with the accused, then for the children of our paying guests, for two reasons: First, they are human beings, too. Second, they are the last hope this territory has of finding its way out of the mire of fiscal irresponsibility and non-accountability that is at long last about to throw government workers out of work.
The fact that children are raped in daycare situations on the mainland "frequently" in no way justifies or minimizes the alleged rape of a single child by a single caregiver in the Virgin Islands. And, as a matter of fact, yes, "the whole destination" may well "take the fall" for this one alleged incident — regardless of how the criminal justice system may ultimately resolve the matter. It only takes one case, no matter how aberrational, to change the "family-friendly" image of a small island.
Jackson's mistake was one of omission. What he was quoted as saying was appropriate, but he could have — and should have — said a lot more, addressing not the facts but the feelings of the hospitality industry and the community he represents to our visitors and potential visitors.
The corporate silence of the resort and the hotel chain are doubtless the result of the advice of high-priced legal counsel — lawyers who don't want their clients saying anything to the media that could conceivably be used against them in court. Better they should listen to their public relations experts about the public perceptions that are promoted when legitimate and deeply felt concerns are met with a wall of silence that sounds a lot like indifference.
In all of these cases, those commenting could take some cues from the classic textbook case of responsible "crisis public relations." It's all about how Johnson & Johnson responded publicly after containers of its product Tylenol, which accounted for 37 percent of the over-the- counter pain-killer market nationwide, were found to be the source of poison that killed seven people in the Chicago area in 1982.
Essentially, the company, under the guidance of its public relations agency, Burson- Marsteller, did three things, in order:
– It said, in essence, "This is terrible."
– It said, in essence, "We're sorry it happened."
– It said, in ongoing detail, "Here's what we are doing to make sure it doesn't happen again."
Note that the company did not say that it was in any way at fault. But it acknowledged that a problem existed and that it was committed to doing something about it. First, however, it let the public know in no uncertain terms that it cared. What next was needed was "immediate action to protect the consumer," Johnson & Johnson's vice president for public relations at the time said later, "and there wasn't the slightest hesitation about being completely open with the news media."
The company quickly recalled two batches of the pain-killer and later withdrew it completely across the nation. Public opinion polling kept the corporate executives up to date on how people felt about its efforts. Pulling the product off the shelves cost $100 million, but the company was seen as acting responsibly. Well-planned sales and media outreach efforts preceded the eventual redistribution of Tylenol — which immediately reclaimed a 24 percent share of the market and eventually became again the nation's best-selling brand.
The territory has been losing overnight visitor volume since 1988. These years have seen the arrival of Hurricanes Hugo and Marilyn and the departure of Pan American, Eastern and Midway airlines, which tend to get the blame. But they have also seen intermittent and isolated crimes against tourists — including murders, permanent injuries and rapes — that have been met by authorities and public relations people with the moral dismissal that "crime occurs everywhere" and the naive assumption that "it won't make any difference."
Of course other places have the same problems. But the Virgin Islands has largely made its living for four decades by encouraging people to leave those places to get away from those problems. Our crime concerns should be not for damage control but for the pain of the victims and for what can and must be done to protect others. Tourists vote with their feet — by vacationing where they choose. But by the time those ballots are cast, it's too late for the losers to do anything but weep.

Editor's note: Jean Etsinger is a Source editor.
For news coverage of the charges filed against the resort employee, click here to go to the main page of St. Thomas Source.

The St. Croix International Triathlon, set for Sunday, May 7, is a marvelous event that draws dedicated contestants from around the world.
The best way for me to pay tribute to the Virgin Islands' premier sporting event is to relate my own participation in one of the earliest versions of the race and to tell you what it did for me, my niece and my nephew.
My triathlon odyssey started with the first one, in the the spring of 1988. My niece, Sally Berriman, was visiting me on St. Thomas. We flew down to St. Croix for a few days. Runners filled the streets of Christiansted. Swimmers plied the harbor waters.
"It's a triathlon, they're practicing for a triathlon," Sally cried.
"What's a triathlon?" I asked. I didn't know my life was about to change.
A few days later we were lying on the sand at St. Thomas' Coki beach. I fell asleep. When I woke up, Sally was missing. But there was this terrible thrashing in the water. It was Sally. She staggered out, dropped to the sand beside me.
"I'll get better, I promise, I've got a year to train," she gasped.
"What are you talking about?" I asked, the first intimations of future trouble hitting my stomach like a greasy johnnycake.
"We're going to enter the St. Croix triathlon next year," she announced when she got her breath back. "They take teams. I checked. We'll be Team Jordan, in your honor."
By the time Sally left for her Philadelphia home a few days later, I had given in to her plans. It was that or be branded a coward inside my extended family. And, to tell the truth, I liked the sound of Team Jordan, as she had cleverly surmised.
She would do the swim. We recruited her cousin Steve Zimmerman, another couch potato, for the bike portion. And I would anchor this relay team by running across the finish line for all three of us.
You must understand we're not talking about next Sunday's St. Croix Triathlon, the one that the Source's own Jamie Bate is undertaking by himself. To veterans of the first two triathlons, 1988 and 1989, later St. Croix triathlons were, well, sissy events.
Back then, when swimmers were swimmers, they swam three instead of two kilometers around the Hotel on the Cay. The bike course was a brutal 59 miles instead of today's 34 miles. And I was to run more than 12 miles in the hot sun, compared to 7.4 miles these days.
During the ensuing fall and winter, we kept track of each other by telephone. Sally was swimming laps in an indoor pool near Philadelphia. Steve was off the couch and pedaling the streets of Concord, Calif., prior to practicing hill climbing to get himself ready for The Beast, which then, as now, tests the endurance of any biker.
"Next April on St. Croix!" we would shout to each other on the phone.
I already was a gentleman jogger. Not fast, but I was good for as many as 10 miles — in the cool of early morning along the waterfront on St. Thomas. So I started running under the sun in the hills around Mountain Top, where I lived.
I was teaching two evenings a week at UVI on St. Croix. The week before the 1989 triathlon I stayed over two nights on the Big Island and tried the exact course three days in a row. Dehydration was a problem, but on the third day I made it to the end. I was ready, I knew I could do it, but I didn't tell anyone.
Team Jordan assembled in Christiansted a few days before the April 23 race. We wore our Team Jordan T-shirts. Our team headquarters was in the Schooner Bay Condominiums, across Gallows Bay from the fort, the finish line and the transition area.
Sally's problem was that in the choppy waters of the harbor she couldn't swim in a straight line. We decided to depend on the course's boundary monitors, people in kayaks and surfboards, to keep her circling the Hotel on the Cay instead of heading out toward Buck Island.
On the eve of the race, Steve presented his somewhat rickety bike for a safety inspection at the fort. When the inspectors looked doubtful, Steve told them, "I'm just here for the beer." So they approved his bike.
Before dawn on race day, the three of us walked to the fort to have Team Jordan's number painted on our legs and arms.
"Just like Mike Pigg," Sally grinned. Pigg, who had won the race in 1988 and was to finish second this day, was her hero. Eleven years later, Pigg is a sentimental favorite in Sunday's event.
Another triathlon contestant that April day was 18-year-old Lance Armstrong, who would go on to become America's international champion bicyclist.
At the age of 62 I didn't want to hang around the transition area in the hot sun for five hours before Steve finished his bike run and tapped me on the shoulder so I could start running, so I decided to spend the time resting in the air-conditioned comfort of the Schooner Bay Condominiums.
I put Sally in the launch that would take her to the Hotel on the Cay and the start of the swim. I promised I'd be at the fort when she came out of the water and that both of us would slap Steve on the back as he started down the street on his bike. She said she could do the swim in two hours.
I returned to the fort in two hours. Biker Steve was long gone. Sally was jumping up and down on the grass in unrestrained joy. She had come up the ramp from the water in under an hour and 30 minutes.
I returned to Schooner Bay, where I stretched out, fully dressed for running, on my bed and dozed off while contemplating my forthcoming 12 miles in the sun.
An hour or so later, the phone rang. A female voice asked if I was Team Jordan. I said I was.
"Your biker has crashed," she said. "We have him at the main aid station."
I jumped from the bed, raced out the door, and sprinted at full speed, arms pumping, the more than a mile to the fort, realizing as I ran that my afternoon in the sun wasn't going to happen that day.
I raced around the fort and through the transition area, jumped over the snow fence around the aid station and burst into the first tent, shouting "Steve Zimmerman, Steve Zimmerman!"
They took me to him. He was lying stomach-down on a cot. Teams of doctors and nurses were hovering over him, not because of his injuries — which were not that serious — but because he was their first casualty of the triathlon and they wanted to practice their skills upon him. Behind the nurses came the masseuses with their ointments and skillful hands.
My feelings of concern for Steve gave way to jealousy.
The Beast didn't defeat Steve; he went up and over it. But at about the 30-mile mark, he was pedaling down a narrow Christiansted street when an old Crucian woman ignored the outstretched arms of the course monitors and set off across the street in front of his bike. He hit the brakes. They locked, and Steve went over the top of his bike.
Ring Lardner, one of America's greatest sportswriters, wrote in the 1940's a funny short story about baseball. It was called "You Can Look It Up."
So it was with Team Jordan. You can look it up. In the records of the 1989 St. Croix Triathlon you'll find Team Jordan and the designation "DNF." It stands for Did Not Finish.
We talked about returning to St. Croix the next year. But there was no triathlon in 1990 because of Hurricane Hugo.
Steve never went back to eating potato chips on the couch. He continued to train and started doing triathlons on his own. In 1993, one year after beating cancer through chemotherapy, he completed the Diablo triathlon in California. It was his last triathlon. He now teaches high school math.
Sally decided to concentrate on biking after St. Croix. She became very good at it. A distance of 100 miles was her norm. Now living in Denver, she fell prey to leukemia and underwent a bone marrow transplant. She plans to get back on a bicycle as soon as her doctors give her the green light.
St. Croix in 1989 was my only triathlon. My knees rebelled after years of jogging on pavement in Washington and St. Thomas.
We're having a family reunion later this year. Sally's going to bring the videotape we made of our adventures in St. Croix. We'll play the tape and laugh, and agree once again that the 1989 triathlon was a seminal event in our lives.

"Jump Up and Play for Carnival Y2K" was the theme for these little troupers who were sponsored by Sprint, Lew Henley Sewage Disposal and Native Son.

"Jump up with Y2K Bugs for Carnival 2000" was the theme of the UVI 4-H and Kirwan Terrace Elementary School troupe with over 50 participating "bugs" jumping up.

The Traditional Indians — traditionally last in the Children's and Adults' Carnival Parades — were still dancing as they reached Post Office Square mid-afternoon Friday.