Scholarship and awards winners with parents, officials of Laparkan and St. Gabriel’s church
Brooklyn, New York – The celebration of Caribbean American Heritage Month continued here on June 26 with a Youth Celebration Day, which included the awarding of four scholarships and two grants to deserving college-bound students by the Laparkan/Una Clarke Scholarship Fund.
The event, which took the form of a worship service at St. Gabriel’s Episcopal Church, was attended by hundreds of Caribbean/Americans and featured a youth choir, dance troupe, and addresses by two youth leaders. Also, a number of elected officials and Caribbean consular corps representatives participated in the event.
The four Laparkan/Una Clarke scholarship winners are Alicia Leitch, Ashley Watson, Gracia Branch and Sylvia Ametsohu, while the grants went to Joshua Medas and James Richmond.
Rev. Eddie Alleyne, Rector and Dean of St. Luke’s Deanery, who conducted the service, emphasized the importance of celebrating and rewarding young people who are doing well, since “much of our attention is focused on trying to deal with those who are “falling by the wayside”. We cannot lose focus of those who are performing creditably, and so we must thank Una Clarke and Laparkan for giving a hand up to these deserving students.”
Speaking on behalf of the scholarship fund, former New York City Council member Una Clarke and Laparkan executive Bob Mitchell said it is important that the scholarship winners come back to serve their communities upon graduating from college. They said Laparkan would continue the scholarship program in the future. The Laparkan/Una Clarke Scholarship Fund was founded in 2004.
The church also presented awards to recent high school graduates.
New York City Council member Jumaane Williams, in his address to the packed church, told the scholarship and awards’ winners that they should not lose faith when they fail. “You will not be successful at everything you do. At times you will fail at some things, but don’t let this deter you. Michael Jordan missed more points than he scored, the same for Babe Ruth. If they had stopped shooting at the basket or swinging that bat because they missed, they would never be who they turned out to be.”
