School kids celebrate at City Centre
It happens every September and Belizean primary school students never seem to get bored. Jacqueline Woods reports on the annual children’s rally.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
Thousands of students from Belize District primary schools filled the bleachers and chairs at the City Centre to enjoy a half day of entertainment for the September Celebrations.
Jacqueline Woods
“In your class do you talk about the September celebrations?”
Andrew Gill, 11 Years Old, Grace Primary
“Yes.”
Jacqueline Woods
“What do you talk about?”
Andrew Gill
“When the battle started, how the British won the battle, we look in the book and read the book.”
Jacqueline Woods
“What do you like about the rally?”
Andrew Gill
“Seeing all the children come and being proud of their country.”
Beverly Gillett, Student Reciting Poem
“You talk ’bout race, race, gial Belize da the place. From north to south, east to west, yu see all kind of face. We have Creole, Garifuna, Mestizo, Ketchi, Maya Indians, and Mennonites. Even East Indians and Chinese unite. Ah like me lee country bad, although when things get haad, ah feel really sad…”
The children were encouraged to work together and unite to move forward as a nation. That message was echoed by Minister of Education Cordel Hyde, when he spoke with the boys and girls.
Cordel Hyde, Minister of Education
“That basically I think that is the message from the 1798 battle, that if we unite we can do a lot of things together. That is we find within ourselves the strength to move on in the darkest of moments that we can do anything we want to do. And I think that I will refer to the Tuesday tragedy because I feel that it is particularly relevant to Belize.”
And while it may have been only a coincidence, security was very much in evidence.
Sgt. Gilbert Pitts, O.C. Zone Beat Liaison Officers
“We have about nine police officers. There is really not an increase, it’s just that we have this large number of kids and we always make sure that we have enough officers to be sure we have no undesirables to come by and molest the kids at this time of the year of the festivities. “
Many of the schools took part in the entertainment. St. John Vianney presented the flag dance, which depicts the history of our flags from the Union Jack when we were a British colony to our national flag when Belize attained her independence on September twenty-first 1981.
Following the rally, all Primary school students were given the rest of the day off. Reporting for News 5, Jacqueline Woods.
