Nearly 500 people gathered Saturday night to honor six Virgin Islanders and a place for their contributions to the St. Thomas-St. John community.
The St. Thomas-St. John Chamber of Commerce annually presents the Bill LaMotta Community Service Award to private citizens and public officials; the Student Achievement Award to young people; and the Corporate Citizen Award to businesses. This year, for the second time, the corporate award was given out at the annual banquet along with the others.
Beginning with former Gov. Alexander Farrelly, chamber president John P. deJongh Jr. also introduced honorees Avna Cassinelli, Rhoda Tillett, Glen and Radha Speer, T.A. Carter, Nahshan St. Bernard, Dwayne K. Thomas and Morgan Callender to the capacity crowd at the newly completed banquet hall at the St. Peter Mountain Greathouse.
As deJongh introduced Farrelly, who had traveled from Washington for the event, those in the audience got to their feet to applaud. The former governor, who has Parkinson's disease, remained seated as deJongh took the microphone to him.
Despite some physical impairment from the debilitating disease, it was quite clear, as deJongh said in his introduction of his former boss, that Farrelly's mind has been in no way affected.
Farrelly named off his family members who had also traveled to join him for the evening and then recalled his relationship with deJongh, who he said had been the youngest commissioner ever to serve the V.I. government.
"He was smart as a whip," Farrelly said. DeJongh served as Finance commissioner under Farrelly and also as a special assistant to the governor.
As Cassinelli took the microphone, she joked, "John said 'here's your chance.'" She proceeded to discuss her dream for Charlotte Amalie 2000, the chamber's development plan for downtown, and her hope for a Waterfront beautification that would exclude Plan 8 -– a four-lane highway that Cassinelli has publically opposed.
Tillett, who was lauded for her promotion and support of the arts in the community and her ability to blend the arts with business, said her hope was that "a group of philanthropists" would buy Tillett Gardens and "keep the arts alive in the garden."
Glen Speer, speaking on behalf of Mongoose Junction, which was honored with the Corporate Citizen Award, said the Cruz Bay shopping complex, after 23 years, still has all of its original tenants. Carter added that the award truly belonged to those tenants, without whom the project could not have succeeded.
DeJongh, who is also chief executive officer of Lockhart Caribbean Corp., joked, "Anyone who can keep tenants for 23 years deserves an award."
The three students who were honored, St. Bernard, Thomas and Callender, thanked their parents and teachers for giving them the support they needed to accomplish their goals and achieve recognition. All are members of the Charlotte Amalie High School Class of 2000 as well as Future Business Leaders of America. Together they operate Kookie Krumbs Inc., a company that functions as a subsidiary of FBLA.
Gov. Charles W. Turnbull wrapped up the program with an impromptu speech congratulating the honorees, noting especially that, with so many negative images of young people in the media, it was important that the chamber chose to honor young people who were doing something positive.