The honorees at this year's St. Thomas-St. John Chamber of Commerce Awards Banquet cover a wide spectrum of the community — former governor Alexander Farrelly, business executive Avna Paiewonsky Cassinelli, arts presenter Rhoda Tillett, the Mongoose I and II shopping complex, and three student leaders at Charlotte Amalie High School.
Farrelly, Cassinelli and Tillett will be honored with Wilbur "Bill" LaMotta Community Service Awards. Mongoose Junction is being recognized with the Corporate Citizen Award. And students Morgan Callendar, Nahshan St. Bernard and Dwayne K. Thomas will receive Student Achievement Awards.
The presentations will take place at the chamber's annual dinner dance, set for Saturday, April 1, at the Estate St. Peter Greathouse and Botanical Garden.
Farrelly, a former Virgin Islands senator and Territorial Court judge as well as a two-term governor, was the territory's third elected chief executive. Prior to that, he was a senior partner with the late Everett Birch and John deJongh Sr. in the law firm that today is known as Birch deJongh Hindels and Hall. A moving force in the Democratic Party for more than three decades, he is now retired.
Cassinelli is the president of A.H. Riise Stores and of Isidor Paiewonsky Associates. The daughter of Isidor and Charlotte Paiewonsky, she led the fight for enactment of "Bill 0411," which gave the territory an edge as a duty-free shopping destination by granting excise tax exemptions on imports of luxury goods. She has been a strong advocate for beautification in downtown Charlotte Amalie.
Tillett moved to St. Thomas in 1959, when her late husband, Jim, started the silkscreening studio still in operation at the former farm they named Tillett Gardens. She has been presenting Arts Alive arts and crafts fairs since 1980, Classics in the Garden concerts since 1987, the annual Arts Alive/Vitelco Classical Music Competition for young people since 1990 and the Tillett Garden Series of non-classical concerts since 1997.
The upscale Mongoose Junction shopping complex broke new ground architecturally and entrepreneurally in Cruz Bay nearly two decades ago. The chamber is recognizing both Glen Speer, architect/developer for the complex and owner of what is now known as Mongoose I, and T.A. Carter, owner of the more recent adjacent development, Mongoose II.
In years past, the chamber has recognized one FBLA member. This year, chamber executive director Joe Aubain said, three seniors received such outstanding recommendations "from teachers, school administrators and people in the community who know them" that the chamber decided to honor them all. "They're all in FBLA, they're all in football, and they're all National Honor Society," he said.
The chamber has been honoring private and public sector leaders in the community with the LaMotta Awards since 1983, with recipients numbering two to four each year.
Last year, Aubain said, the chamber instituted the the practice of presenting one such award to a non-profit agency activist, with Lynn Falkenthal, executive director of the Victim Advocate program, the first honoree. It's "a way the chamber can recognize the leadership of such agencies, for what they contribute is so much a part of the community," he said.
The Corporate Citizen Award was presented at the awards banquet for the first time last year, too, with Coral World the recipient. "We have long had the award, but it had been given at a smaller function," Aubain said. It's in recognition of "the commitments a business has made to the territory by investing in esthetics and architecture, adding to the overall destination," he said.
The theme for the April 1 evening is "Celebrating the Year of the Dragon." Mario Dennis of Liberated Artists and Floral Design is in charge of the decorations, which will have an oriental motif.
"There were hints," Aubain said, tongue firmly in cheek, "that in the past, the chamber's recognition dinner dances had been. . . well, a bit boring." So, last year, the organization went all out for a "Stars, Starfish, Starlight" evening at Coral World, and this time it's opting for the oriental theme.
"It will not be boring," Aubain promises with a smile. "It's going to be a lot of fun." According to informed sources, the ambience must might even include a real Chinese New Year- type dragon making its appearance.
There will be cocktails on the poolside deck from 7 to 8 p.m. The awards presentation will follow, and after that guests will dine in the new banquet pavilion at the North Side visitor attraction. P'Your Passion will provide music for dining and dancing. Dress is "island elegant." Tickets are $100 per person; they'll be available shortly, and reservations may be made by calling the chamber offices at 776-0010.