Dear Source:
On May 17, 2009, Mothers Against Guns, Inc. and Jason Carroll Memorial Fund, Inc. held the Sixth Annual Walk/ Run Against Gun Violence in the Virgin Islands. More than Four Hundred Seventy-Five Virgin Islanders came out to take a stand against violence in the community.
Because of the support from the Virgin Islands community, we were able to have a successful event, and to raise enough money to help a Virgin Islands youth go to college. This year, the recipient of the Jason Carroll Memorial one-year full tuition scholarship at University of the Virgin Islands is Ch’koi Bryan, a recent graduate of Antilles High School. She won the scholarship by writing the best essay entitled "How the Virgin Islands will stop excessive violence in its community.” She was chosen as the winner of the contest by a panel from UVI for her essay.
Partial scholarships will also be awarded to our scholarship winners over the last four years, Anyssa Richardson (2005), Jamilyah Christopher (2007) and Kirwin Hodge (2008). To date, because of the support of the community and our sponsors and donors, we have been able to give out more than Twenty Two Thousand Dollars in scholarships to help our scholarship winners. All of them have demonstrated their commitment to scholastic excellence by doing well in school, and we expect great things from them and from this year’s winner in the future.
A big thank you goes out to Governor John deJongh for proclaiming May 17, 2009 as Crime and Gun Violence Prevention Day. This year, the Governor issued the proclamation and it was read by Cheryl Francis, the wife of the Lt. Governor. We were also blessed by the presence of the First Lady Cecile deJongh and the Governor’s family who participated in the Walk/Run. We also thank the former Police Commissioner James McCall and Deputy Chief of Police Rodney Querrard for their addresses to the participants. Also, thank you to Angela Rawlins for singing “What About the Children?”
We would like to take this opportunity to thank our sponsors, Elizabeth Jane’s the Silver Source, St. Thomas Radiology Associates, Fintrac LLC and Scotiabank. We are appreciative this year of a large donation from Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands to assist the Walk/Run and the activities of our organizations. We also want to thank again Attorney Joel Holt for his continued assistance along with Marjorie Roberts, Esq. and Judge George Carroll. Finally we want to thank Banco Popular, First Bank, Tutu Park Mall and Wells Fargo for their support.
We are also grateful for the sponsorship of West Indies Company, Coca Cola Bottling Co., St. Thomas Dairies, and Cost U Less for supplying the participants in the event with water and other refreshments. We also thank Clarence Hansby, Lt. Francis and the other young men and women of the Civil Air Patrol for the great assistance that they gave us on the day of the Walk/Run in making sure that everything went smoothly and safely. Thank you goes out again to the Officers of VIPD who made certain that we would have a smoothly run and safe event.
A special thank you goes to Therese Hodge and the St. Thomas Association of Road Runners and the volunteers that came out in force to help us on the day of the Walk/Run.
We also want to thank the members of Mothers Against Guns who helped to make the Walk/Run a reality. We thank Dr. Ida White, our mistress of ceremonies at the event, Attorney Archie Jennings and Anita George. We also give special thanks to our scholarship recipients, who assisted us including Anyssa, Jamilyah, Kirwin and Andrea Dorsey. Thanks to our son, Jameson, who helped the event in so many ways with the music, sound system and public service anouncement.
We wish to congratulate the trophy winners in our 8 different age categories for male and females and our overall winners Kyson Correa, the top male runner, and Melissa King, the top female runner. We also congratulate Charlotte Amalie High School, the school with the most participants, and the Junior Firefighters, repeating as the community organization with the most participants. Our youngest participant was Micah Anderson, and our most senior participant was Pastor Samuel Bailey.
Again, the event was what it was because of the more than 475 runners and walkers who demonstrated by walking and running against violence. These individuals were students and parents, teachers, counselors, principals and other persons from all walks of life who wanted to demonstrate by walking and running that they are taking a stand against violence in the community. We must have a change of heart and we must change inwardly for true change to occur. With the Grace of God, together as a community, we can win the war against gun violence.
Celia A. Carroll, president
Jason Carroll Memorial Fund, Inc./Mothers Against Guns. Inc., V.I.
