Jesse Ramdeo

So­ca artist Austin “Su­perblue” Lyons was award­ed the Hum­ming­bird Medal (Gold) for his con­tri­bu­tion to mu­sic and cul­ture dur­ing the sec­ond in­stal­ment of the Na­tion­al Awards Cer­e­mo­ny yes­ter­day.

Lyons said it was a dream come true to re­ceive a na­tion­al award and en­cour­aged young peo­ple to dream big.

“It’s a beau­ti­ful thing, I can tell my chil­dren, their chil­dren and chil­dren of the na­tion that it is nice to dream, dreams do come through.”

Lyons is a nine-time Road March monarch, win­ning his first ti­tle with ‘So­ca Bap­tist in 1980 un­der the so­bri­quet ‘Blue Boy’. His lat­est ti­tle was in 2013 with ‘Fan­tas­tic Fri­day’ per­form­ing as ‘Su­perblue’.

Among the five re­cip­i­ents of the 2021 Cha­co­nia Medal (Gold) yes­ter­day was Bev­er­ly King, who was award­ed in the sphere of com­mu­ni­ty work, mas­ter train­ing, health ed­u­ca­tion and ser­vice to per­sons liv­ing with HIV.

Speak­ing with the me­dia af­ter the cer­e­mo­ny, King ex­plained she was hum­bled and grate­ful for the recog­ni­tion giv­en to her for her 30 years of ser­vice.

“It had been a chal­lenge in the be­gin­ning, but from 1992 to present I feel I got a gift I de­served. I’m proud to say I’ve been fight­ing the fight for per­sons liv­ing with HIV, I’ve been walk­ing the walk for per­sons liv­ing with HIV and I have done my best,” King said.

King, a trained pro­fes­sion­al who was in­stru­men­tal in the es­tab­lish­ment of “Com Talk In­ter­na­tion­al”, a reg­is­tered NGO in­volved in HIV and AIDS pro­gram­ming, coun­selling and psy­choso­cial sup­port for over 25 years, said the coun­try has come a long way in re­la­tion to the dis­ease.

“When we start­ed we had no med­ica­tion, peo­ple had to get med­ica­tion abroad and we have free med­ica­tion for per­sons liv­ing with HIV and I’m proud of that be­cause with­out med­ica­tion you won’t live and I re­mem­ber in the ear­lies we saw a lot of deaths.”

President Paula-Mae Weekes presents the Chaconia Medal (Gold) to Beverly King while Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley looks on during the 2021 National Awards Ceremony at President’s House, St Ann’s.

POOL PHOTOGRAPHER

King en­cour­aged the pop­u­la­tion, in par­tic­u­lar the youth, to ex­tend help when they can, giv­en the rigours of dai­ly life.

“It is im­por­tant that each hand reach out and help, if we don’t fo­cus on help­ing some­one we’ll be self­ish.”

Re­ceiv­ing the Hum­ming­bird Medal (Bronze) posthu­mous­ly for gal­lantry was Stephen Mar­cano, a for­mer mem­ber of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Fire Ser­vice, who lost his life while as­sist­ing rel­a­tives who got in­to dif­fi­cul­ty while bathing in wa­ters off Ma­yaro.

His wife Patrice Mar­cano re­ceived the award and said she was grate­ful the ho­n­our was be­stowed on her de­ceased hus­band.

“I know he is look­ing down and I was think­ing for a while should I go should I not, how I will re­act and with his strength, I think I could stand up here to­day in front all these cam­eras know­ing how cam­era shy I am to say I’m so proud to say I’m Mrs Mar­cano.”

Ac­cord­ing to Patrice, know­ing her hus­band, he would have giv­en his life for any­one in dan­ger and the award was a sym­bol of strength and hope for their chil­dren.

The Na­tion­al Awards had been de­layed for two con­sec­u­tive years ow­ing in part to the dis­rup­tions caused by the COVID19 pan­dem­ic.

No­tably, no one was award­ed the Or­der of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go for 2021, the na­tion’s high­est ho­n­our.

At Mon­day’s cer­e­mo­ny to ho­n­our 2020 re­cip­i­ents, Dr Wayne Fred­er­ick, who is cur­rent­ly serv­ing as the dis­tin­guished Charles R Drew En­dowed Chair of Surgery at the Howard Uni­ver­si­ty Col­lege of Med­i­cine, was be­stowed with the ORTT.

Cha­co­nia Medal, GOLD:

• ↓Bev­er­ly King - Peer Ed­u­ca­tor In the Spheres of Com­mu­ni­ty Work, and Mas­ter Train­er Health Ed­u­ca­tion, Ser­vice to per­sons liv­ing with HIV

• ↓Dale Mc Leod, Man­ag­ing Di­rec­tor In the Sphere of Busi­ness

• ↓Jer­ry Hospedales, Econ­o­mist and In the Sphere of Eco­nom­ic Ad­vi­sor De­vel­op­ment

• ↓Sharon Christo­pher, At­tor­ney -at-Law In the Spheres of Busi­ness, Lead­er­ship Bank­ing and De­vel­op­ment Coach Fi­nance and Mo­ti­va­tion­al Speak­er

• ↓Win­ston Mel­lowes, Pro­fes­sor Emer­i­tus In the Sphere of Ed­u­ca­tion of Chem­i­cal En­gi­neer­ing

Cha­co­nia Medal, SIL­VER:

• ↓Mc Don­ald Greene, Man­ag­ing Di­rec­tor In the Sphere of Busi­ness

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley congratulates Dale Mc Leod after he received the Chaconia Medal (Gold) from President Paula-Mae Weekes, centre, during the 2021 National Awards Ceremony.

POOL PHOTOGRAPHER

Hum­ming Bird Medal, GOLD

• ↓Deb­o­rah Jean-Bap­tiste-Samuel, At­tor­ney-at-Law In the Sphere of Youth De­vel­op­ment

• ↓Austin Lyons, Ca­lyp­son­ian In the Spheres of Mu­sic and Cul­ture (Su­perblue) Com­pos­er and Writer

• ↓Bhawani Per­sad, Re­tiree In the Spheres of Com­mu­ni­ty Ser­vice in the Blind And Vi­su­al­ly Im­paired/Dis­abled Com­mu­ni­ty

• ↓Michael Oliv­er, Mu­si­cian, Com­pos­er In the Spheres of Cul­ture and the Stan­ley Booth­man Arranger, Pro­duc­er, Arts Mu­si­cal Di­rec­tor and Band Leader

• ↓ John Ernest, Re­tiree In the Spheres of Cul­ture and Fer­reira the Arts

• ↓Maulana Mush­taq, Mus­lim Leader In the Sphere of Com­mu­ni­ty Ahmed Su­laimani Imam Ser­vice (Posthu­mous­ly)

Hum­ming Bird Medal, SIL­VER

• ↓Al­lan For­tune, Ca­lyp­son­ian and In the Spheres of Mu­sic and Cul­ture (Broth­er Mu­da­da) Com­pos­er

• ↓Franz Lam­bkin Re­tiree In the Spheres of Mu­sic and Cul­ture

• ↓John­son King, Ca­lyp­son­ian and In the Spheres of Mu­sic and Cul­ture (John­ny King) Com­pos­er

• ↓Sis­ter An­net­ta, Lec­tur­er, Nun In the Spheres of Ed­u­ca­tion and Guid­ing Alexan­der and Re­tired School Prin­ci­pal

• ↓Morel Pe­ters, Ca­lyp­son­ian In the Spheres of Mu­sic and Cul­ture (King Lu­ta) and Com­pos­er

• ↓Lennox Tou­s­saint, Dea­con In the Sphere of Cul­ture

• ↓Lin­coln Phillips ,Soc­cer Coach/ In the Sphere of Sport

Hum­ming Bird Medal, BRONZE

• ↓Stephen Mar­cano, Fire Of­fi­cer In the Sphere of Gal­lantry (Posthu­mous­ly)

Pub­lic Ser­vice Medal of Mer­it, GOLD

• ↓Gillian Mac­in­tyre, Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary Re­tired In the Sphere of Pub­lic Ser­vice

• ↓Vish­nu Dhan­paul, Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary Re­tired In the Sphere of Pub­lic Ser­vice

• ↓Cap­tain Kent Moore, Re­tiree In the Spheres of Pub­lic Ser­vice (Posthu­mous­ly) (Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty)

Pub­lic Ser­vice Medal of Mer­it, SIL­VER

• ↓Al­ick An­tho­ny, Re­tired In the Spheres of Pub­lic/Com­mu­ni­ty Charles Po­lice In­spec­tor Ser­vice

Medal for the De­vel­op­ment of Women, GOLD

• ↓Rev­erend Joy Ab­dul-Mo­han, Mod­er­a­tor of the In the Spheres of Re­li­gion, So­cial Pres­by­ter­ian Church Work and Ac­tivism of Trinidad and To­ba­go and Min­is­ter of Re­li­gion

• ↓Gai­etry Par­gass, Se­nior Le­gal Ad­vis­er In the Spheres of Women and Chil­dren Rights

Medal for the De­vel­op­ment of Women, SIL­VER

• ↓Sh­er­na Alexan­der Ben­jamin, In­ter­per­son­al Vi­o­lence In the Sphere of De­vel­op­ment of Pre­ven­tion and Peace Women and Girls Ed­u­ca­tion Con­sul­tant

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley congratulates Jerry Hospedales after he received the Chaconia Medal (Gold) from President Paula-Mae Weekes, centre, during the 2021 National Awards Ceremony.

POOL PHOTOGRAPHER

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