Basseterre, St. Kitts, August 03, 2018 (SKNIS):Positive messages such as “Love is Power; With Our Love We Can Save the World; No Guns for Me; and Peace, Love, Live; were portrayed to onlookers in Basseterre during Friday’s (August 03) street march by more than 400 young people in St. Kitts.
The activity was part of the Ministry of National Security Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force Explorers Group Annual Summer Youth Camp currently taking place at the Dr. William Connor Primary School in St. Johnston Village from July 29 to August 05.
Camp Coordinator, Constable Lauston Percival, said the week has been quite rewarding and the street march was designed to draw greater public attention to the children and the promise they hold in shaping the future of St. Kitts and Nevis. The messages displayed on the placards were composed entirely by the 05 to 18-year-old participants.
Commissioner of Police, Ian Queeley, was seen leading the march and noted that the ministry and police force are ramping up support for community and social intervention programmes that play a greater role in positively shaping the minds of children, which in turn will make it less likely that they will engage in antisocial activities as they get older.
He challenged residents and said “we look forward to the community now responding, seeing that the police is playing their part.”
A special feature of today’s activity saw 14 recruits led by Corporal Derell Boon of the Police Training Complex, marching in full uniform in a section within the march.
“We thought that it would have been a very good idea to have the recruits come and display some of the training that they are currently learning … and we know that children love to see when police are marching and we felt like it would be a good idea to have that display,” he said.
Commissioner Queeley applauded the recruits who are only one month into the six-month training course.
“They have to be ready for the Independence parade so as we say in local language ‘they have to take night and make day’,” he said, which stresses the importance of being well prepared. “I want to commend them also because I think that their display, having had only four weeks [training] so far, has been essentially good and we look forward to bigger and better things.”
The Explorers group camp continues on Saturday (August 04) with a boat ride to Nevis and climaxes the next day (Sunday, August 05) with worship at the People’s Evangelistic Centre at Needsmust followed by a luncheon and closing ceremony at OOJJ’s Conference Centre.
Constable Percival thanked the sponsors, community policing team, parents and volunteers who contributed to the success of the second annual camp.
