BARP President Marilyn Rice-Bowen with City of Bridgetown Co-operative Credit Union Ltd Winston Alleyne as they encourage Barbadians to attend BARP’s free concert series featuring the Royal Barbados Police Band, which will be making its way to the east of the island tomorrow.
THE Barbados Association of Retired Persons (BARP) is bringing more Christmas cheer to Barbadians, as its concert series heads to the east of the island.
Tomorrow, Friday December 11, the BARP series of free Christmas concerts featuring the Royal Barbados Police Band will bring the King George V Park to life with all the Yuletide favourites.
BARP President Marilyn Rice-Bowen said the purpose of the series of concerts is to spread much-needed Christmas cheer during the COVID period, with smaller crowds cumulatively reaching a big audience.
“As a responsible NGO, we thought that it would be irresponsible of us to hold one event and have those large crowds. Whereas yes the music is enjoyable we still have to be responsible,” she stressed.
“The other reason that would have motivated us to spread the cheer is that we recognised that most activities tend to centre in the St. Michael and Christ Church area and when we looked at our disposition of our membership islandwide, we do have members throughout Barbados and they deserve to stay where they are and enjoy Christmas cheer.”
Rice-Bowen announced the newest sponsor to come on board City of Bridgetown Co-operative Credit Union (COB), represented by founder and marketing manager Winston Alleyne. According to Alleyne, “COB is very happy to partner with BARP to bring cheer to the people of Barbados at this very crucial COVID time. We know that things are fairly dread at this time, and we know that the people of Barbados need something to cheer about.”
He said the concert coincides with the opening of a new COB branch in Six Roads. “We want to reach out to St. Philip and St. John and surrounding communities to let them know that COB is there for you and we will partner with you to help you achieve your goals, especially in these trying times,” he said.
“We had carried out a survey among our membership and they said they wanted a presence in that area. The survey showed this is the area they wanted to go and we found a space. We've renovated it at significant expense but we want to produce something beautiful for St. Philip for our members.
The series started in Hastings Christ Church on December 4 and continued at the Speightstown Esplanade on December 9. On December 17 the concert series will end in Independence Square. (JH)