Yvonne Webb

Pe­nal/Debe has con­sis­tent­ly pro­duced na­tion­al schol­ars, and on No­vem­ber 13, the re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tion recog­nised 48 such achiev­ers, among them, the top SEA per­form­ers, and na­tion­al schol­ar­ship and CSEC win­ners.

The awards were hand­ed out dur­ing the Pe­nal/Debe Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion's eighth an­nu­al Civic Re­cep­tion and Award Cer­e­mo­ny, held at Achiev­ers Ban­quet Hall in Dun­can Vil­lage, San Fer­nan­do.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar was the fea­ture speak­er and chal­lenged the young achiev­ers to dare to dream, and use their abil­i­ty to make those dreams a re­al­i­ty.

She not­ed that such recog­ni­tion cer­e­monies were ide­al av­enues for en­gen­der­ing com­mu­ni­ty spir­it.Prem­c­hand Sookoo, chair­man, told the young achiev­ers: "This evening is just the be­gin­ning. I am cer­tain there will be many more achieve­ments to cel­e­brate."He added: "There is no such thing as luck and chance. What you make of your life, large­ly de­pends on you.

"You are the de­sign­ers of your fu­ture, as you chart your course to­wards a bet­ter to­mor­row."Twen­ty-four adults were al­so recog­nised for their con­tri­bu­tion to sports, cul­ture and com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice.

They in­clud­ed the old­est serv­ing mem­ber of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Scout and Com­mon­wealth Crick­et Club, Ab­dool Karim; clas­si­cal In­di­an singer, Samuel Solomon; and De­van Ma­hadeo, a spe­cial child who has par­tic­i­pat­ed in the World Sum­mer Games in Ire­land, played foot­ball in Chi­na, Ja­maica and St Kitts, and brought home sev­er­al medals for foot­ball.