Basseterre, St. Kitts, April 21, 2017 (SKNIS)—The St. Christopher National Trust (SCNT) is making an appeal to members of the public to become members of the Trust and benefit from having a voice in protecting the nation’s heritage. SCNT Executive Director, Ryllis Percival, speaking on “Working For You” this week Wednesday, noted that being a member of the National Trust provides more insights into matters pertaining to national heritage and gives members a voice.
“Become an advocate for our heritage, our history. That alone should give you the impetus to come and say I want to be part of it. The other benefits of getting a newsletter, being kept up to date, getting discounts, those things are minute,” she said. “Being able to become an advocate, being a part of it and saying I am a member and I don’t like what you are doing to my beach or I don’t like what you are doing to this site or that site—you now have a voice and that for me is important for becoming a member,” she said.
The cost to become a member is just EC$50 per year, which also provides certain benefits. “There are also different plans that you can get your membership for five years, 10 years, long term; lifetime member as well,” disclosed Fitzroy Clarke, Project Manager at the SCNT. He encouraged persons to become members and to visit the SCNT office at the National Museum to get more information and to register.
Additionally, Ms. Percival noted that some of the funds from the membership fees, help the National Trust in maintaining heritage sites on the island.
“It’s a small drop and it may not be able to do restoration work but it can do maintenance work like cleaning up the area,” she explained.
Meanwhile, aside from membership fees, Ms. Percival noted that the Trust also gets funding from international donors to work on certain projects. “We do (get) grants from external agencies. Right now we are trying to get some funds from a fund called the Ambassadorial Fund from Barbados to do further work on the Cotton Ginnery in Cayon,” Ms. Percival said.
“We have to get persons to write grant applications and then send them off and hope we become successful. So a lot of the funds we get are through grants and from funding agencies internationally,” he added.
The National Trust gets a small subvention from government but depends a lot on the revenue from visits to the Museum and donations as well as funding for projects.
