By Nelson A. King
The St. Vincent and the Grenadines Ex-Police Association USA, Inc. last Friday night honored four outstanding nationals and a business concern during its 36th anniversary banquet fund-raiser and awards ceremony at Tropical Paradise Ballroom on Utica Avenue in Brooklyn.
The Brooklyn-based group conveyed its Special Recognition Award on Vaughan Toney, president and chief executive officer of the Brooklyn-based Friends of Crown Heights Educational Centers.
The group’s former president, Godfrey Pitt, and current secretary, Berisford “Shuga” Latham, received the Diamond Award; and the Brooklyn-based Standard Shippers, Inc., whose owner is Gideon “Fessy” Yorke, received the Corporate Citizenship Award. Ex-police officer Charles Jordan received the President Surprise Award.
The Special Recognition Award, which is conveyed on a non-member of the association, is bestowed on someone who has played a “significant role in empowering individuals within the Vincentian/American community,” the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Ex-Police Association USA, Inc. said in its souvenir journal.
Don Providence – a former elementary school teacher in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, ex-general manager of O.D. Brisbane & Sons and extant owner of AI Real Estate, one of the older real estate companies in St. Vincent and the Grenadines – delivered the keynote address at the gala ceremony that was also addressed by New York Counsel General Selmon Walters and president of the Brooklyn-based Council of St. Vincent and the Grenadines Organizations, USA, Inc. (COSAGO) Laverne McDowald-Thompson.
