In celebrating its 20th anniversary, the United Vincie Cultural Group of Brooklyn (UVCGB) on Saturday bestowed special honors on eight outstanding nationals during a gala ceremony at Antun’s in Queens Village, Queens.
Before effervescent patrons, the group honored psalmist and evangelist Bridget Blucher; UVCGB member, former vice president and guitarist Geoffrey Holder; Laverne McDowald-Thompson, former president, now vice president, of the Council of St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ Organizations, U.S.A., Inc. (COSAGO), the Brooklyn-based umbrella Vincentian group in the US; and Sherrill-Ann Mason, chairperson of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Diaspora Committee of New York, Inc., which is also based in Brooklyn.
The others were: Videographer and photographer Lesley Richards; renowned graphic artist and former Caribbean Tourist Organization (CTO) New York staffer Annette Stowe; Vaughan Toney (posthumously), late president and chief executive officer of the Friends of Crown Heights Educational Centers in Brooklyn; and Caribbean Life’s senior writer Dr. Nelson A. King.
Photo by Garnes Byron
Atiba Edwards, the first Black chief executive officer and president of the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, delivered the keynote address.
“As we celebrate this important milestone, we wish to express our sincere gratitude to each of you who has supported us over the years,” said UVCGB president and founder the Rev. Dr. Roxie Morris, who was recently officially installed as the first pastor of Hope Restored Tabernacle, Inc., an evangelical church in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn.
“Our many volunteers who have stepped up to the plate and helped for the past 20 years, we say God bless you,” added Dr. Morris, who co-chaired the ceremony with UVCGB Vice President Randolph “Randy” Liverpool. “We appreciate your heartfelt love, contribution and sacrifice.
“If you are hearing about us for the first time, we thank you for being here to celebrate with us,” she continued. “Your presence demonstrates your partnership in building a new, healthier St. Vincent and the Grenadines.” `
Consul General to the United States Rondy “Luta” McIntosh expressed “heartfelt congratulations to the United Vincie Cultural Group of Brooklyn and all your awardees.”
He particularly singled out Toney, stating that his death is “our single greatest loss.
“We must not forget what he did,” McIntosh urged. “So, tonight, I want to recognize these Vincentians who’ve been working in the trenches.
“We wish you the very best and avail ourselves of this opportunity to renew to you, assurances of their highest consideration and esteem,” he added.
Toney’s widow, Bridget Toney, and their daughter, Tiffany, as well as Tiffany’s 11-year-old daughter, Tia Cochran, were present to receive the award.
Bridget and Tiffany cried, as they accepted the award, and were consoled by Pastor Morris.
“Thank you for your bravery,” Rev. Morris said. “You have been in our thoughts and our prayers.”
Bridget then announced that she has started a scholarship, in Toney’s honor, for children in the Archdiocese of St. Paul’s and St. John’s in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, to attend secondary school.
She told Caribbean Life afterwards that the scholarship will be called the Vaughan Toney Scholarship Education Fund.
Bridget told the ceremony that every day she spends at her mother’s house in Calliaqua – the southern-most town in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, where Toney was born, raised and interred – she “can see his graveside from my mother’s window.
“May his memories live on!” she said.
In accepting the award, Holder said: “This is a great surprise for me. For years, I played music.”
Mason, who succeeded her late husband, Maxwell Haywood, as chairperson of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Diaspora Committee of New York, Inc., expressed gratitude to UVCGB and patrons for the award.
“I love serving,” she said, adding: “I’m just overwhelmed.”
In receiving the award, Richards gave God thanks “for the safe keeping of my life.
“I was raised to be kind,” he said. “Whatever I did was for somebody who served in the community.”
Stowe told her follow honorees: “You all deserve it. I’m glad to be in your company.”
After Judith Cuffy-Murray, a UVCGB member, read most of the information from Blucher’s long biography, the latter remarked to laughter: “She left out something – I’m from country” (alluding to the fact that she was born and raised in New Grounds in South Central Windward in St. Vincent and the Grenadines).
Curlina Edwards, a lawyer and vice president of the Brooklyn-based Chateaubelair Development Organization (CDO), received the award on behalf of McDowald-Thompson, who was traveling.
“Firstly, I want to comment the United Vincy Cultural Group of Brooklyn for their vision and steadfastness in upholding the mission of their organization for 20 years,” said Edwards in reading a message from McDowald-Thompson, also CDO president. “Congratulations to the president and all members.
“Special thanks for your recognition of my service to the communities here in the Diaspora and at home,” she added. “It truly brings me joy to be of service to others. I thank God for all of us who are recognized here today. Congrats, fellow honorees. We all have different abilities. Let’s continue to use them to do something for others.”
Crispin Friday, COSAGO president, congratulated UVCGB on the 20th anniversary milestone, stating that his organization was “indeed proud of your accomplishments.”
“COSAGO honors, respects and appreciates the UVCGB for their important work in our community, and their significant contributions to our St. Vincent and the Grenadines,” he said. “We will continue to support their efforts and wish them nothing but success as they begin their journey of the next 20 years.”
The ceremony was punctuated with dynamic singing by UVCGB members and Blucher, a pre-eminent Caribbean gospel artiste.
