An­ge­lo Mar­celle

The Aripo Com­mu­ni­ty Coun­cil held its first ever pa­rade at its com­mu­ni­ty cen­tre on In­de­pen­dence Day. Four bands pa­rad­ed the streets and 15-year-old Rae-Ann Di­az was crowned the first ever queen by lead­ing the band Amerindi­ans. The qui­et com­mu­ni­ty, which is nest­ed in the heart of the North­ern Range, just off the East­ern Main Road in Waller Field, boasts of a pop­u­la­tion be­tween 800-1,000 res­i­dents. For­mer Ari­ma May­or Ash­ton Ford was among the spe­cial­ly in­vit­ed guests. Forde, now the Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary for the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment, has al­ways been an in­te­gral part of the so­cial di­et of the res­i­dents in Aripo.

Un­der his stew­ard­ship as may­or, he was cred­it­ed with be­ing in­stru­men­tal in the pro­vi­sion of elec­tric­i­ty for the vil­lagers. The bands were judged on orig­i­nal­i­ty and pre­sen­ta­tion and fo­cused on Amerindi­an, African, Chi­nese and East In­di­an cos­tum­ing. For a first at­tempt in parad­ing in Car­ni­val cos­tumes, the mem­bers of the Aripo Com­mu­ni­ty Coun­cil should be proud of their ef­forts. It would be a good thought to have them in­vit­ed to ei­ther Ari­ma or San­gre Grande Car­ni­val cel­e­bra­tions in 2012.