Kiddies have fun parade after weeks of costume-making learning

Though overcast skies initially threatened the festivities today, bright and sunny conditions eventually emerged and cleared the way for students from the Arthur Smith and George Lamming Primary Schools to take part in this year’s SigniaGlobe Financial Junior Masquerade Project in association with Burger King, Pinehill Dairy and Sunshine Snacks.

Many students from the schools over the last several weeks would have taken part in a number of costume-designing workshops, as each school dealt with themes from environmental heath to national pride.

While speaking to media on the cusp of Arthur Smith Primary students completing their mini parade through their neighbouring community, chief cultural officer of the National Cultural Foundation (NCF), Andrea Wells, said that this year’s project so far has been a success, with students not only learning about the finer details behind costume design, but also diving deeper into the themes of the sections in their band.

“I think it went tremendously well… the band Arthur Smith Primary was dealing with the theme of saving our environment, building awareness with the children and everyone watching the band about global warming, the challenges of plastic waste, and some of the solutions to the problem like reducing, reusing and recycling.

“It was a fully educational exercise for the children who would have learnt these concepts and discussed them in the process of designing and creating their costumes… today was the grand event where they got to wear the costumes and parade them around the neighbourhood adjacent to the school to show off their weeks of hard work,” she explained.

Wells added that though the pandemic has not allowed the usual Junior Kadooment to take place this year, there is hope that the smaller parades planned for some individual schools will continue to generate interest among the students in theart of the craft.

“For many of them it was their first time parading within this environment [though] Arthur Smith has taken part in our schools’ costume programme in the past.

But of course, because we are still at the tail end of the pandemic, we have switched from having one big Junior Kadooment event to mini Kadooments within the vicinities of the participating schools.”

Fifty-six children in all participated at the Arthur Smith’s mini Kadooment parade this year, out of the just over 600 children who are scheduled to participate at schools across the island. (SB)