Pan leg­end Len “Boogsie” Sharpe is elat­ed by the Unit­ed Na­tion’s de­c­la­ra­tion of Au­gust 11 as World Steel­pan Day.

The co-founder and arranger of HAD­CO Phase II Pan Groove said it is a joy­ful mo­ment for steel­pan play­ers every­where.

“On that day the world will recog­nise the hard work and com­mit­ment of our peo­ple in the fra­ter­ni­ty,” said Boogsie.

“While I con­grat­u­late the Unit­ed Na­tions, the Gov­ern­ment, the ex­ec­u­tive of Pan Trin­ba­go and all oth­ers who were in­volved in mak­ing this day a re­al­i­ty, I al­so wish to say that there is still much work to be done here at home. I con­tin­ue to ap­peal to the Gov­ern­ment es­pe­cial­ly, to reach out to the many bands that need as­sis­tance. Nonethe­less, I am cel­e­brat­ing with the world. God bless steel­pan.”

Min­is­ter of Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts, Ran­dall Mitchell in­tro­duced the draft res­o­lu­tion at the 77th Gen­er­al As­sem­bly sit­ting in New York on Ju­ly 24. The draft res­o­lu­tion was adopt­ed and will be ob­served an­nu­al­ly on the UN cal­en­dar. It re­ceived co-spon­sor­ship from 84 mem­ber states of the Gen­er­al As­sem­bly.

Di­rec­tor Sales and Busi­ness De­vel­op­ment, Mu­si­cal In­stru­ments of Trinidad and To­ba­go (MITTCO) Akua Lei­th said the pro­nounce­ment was a sig­nif­i­cant ac­com­plish­ment for Trinidad and To­ba­go.

“The im­pact steel­pan has on schools and com­mu­ni­ties on the world stage is in­valu­able,” he said.

“MITTCO joins the cel­e­bra­tion to­geth­er with all the tuners, builders, groovers, pan­nist, ed­u­ca­tors, arrangers and en­thu­si­asts in the world; as the com­pa­ny al­so cel­e­brates its 1st An­niver­sary on Au­gust 11, 2023. Hap­py World Steel­pan Day.”

Hadad broth­ers John, Joseph and Robert con­grat­u­lat­ed all stake­hold­ers in­volved.

“Our ini­tial thoughts re­gard­ing the De­c­la­ra­tion by the Unit­ed Na­tions cer­tain­ly fo­cus­es on the in­creas­ing de­gree of pres­tige that is as­so­ci­at­ed with the steel­pan and sec­ond­ly, the nu­mer­ous op­por­tu­ni­ties that now ex­ist for our tech­ni­cians and mu­si­cians in the fra­ter­ni­ty,” said John Hadad.

“When a promi­nent body such as the Unit­ed Na­tions opens such a door, it says to us that as a peo­ple that we have a re­source and tal­ent that the rest of the world de­sire.

“And if we are speak­ing about sus­tain­abil­i­ty in the things that we do, think and say, then cer­tain­ly the con­cept of an in­stru­ment such as the steel­pan comes in­to play be­cause it brings with it a mass move­ment of tech­ni­cal, in­tel­lec­tu­al and so­cial skills that has de­fied the odds, brought a sense of to­geth­er­ness to com­mu­ni­ties and is con­tin­u­ous­ly pro­vid­ing women and men; girls and boys the world over with op­por­tu­ni­ties for growth and em­pow­er­ment.”

World Steel­pan Day will cel­e­brate the mu­si­cal in­stru­ment, which orig­i­nat­ed in Trinidad and To­ba­go in the ear­ly 1930’s, the on­ly new in­stru­ment, in­vent­ed in the 20th cen­tu­ry.