The Ministries and Departments of Home Affairs and Social Development catered for some 350 senior citizens for the Anguilla Day luncheon at the Blue Ridge Conference Centre, at Lower South Hill, but it appeared that eventually many more persons turned up on their own for the sumptuous event.
In any case, there was an abundance of a variety of food, refreshment and dessert for all in attendance, and probably with some left overs as well.
The luncheon is an annual Anguilla Day event, sponsored by the Government and aimed at entertaining fairly large numbers of elderly persons throughout the island. It is part of a month-long series of activities in celebration of the 1967 Anguilla Revolution, and the formal separation of the island from its constitutional and political ties with St. Kitts-Nevis.
Chief Minister and Minister of Finance, Mr. Victor Banks, and Minister of Social Development, Mr. Evans McNiel Rogers, welcomed the senior citizens to the luncheon, assured them that the Government would continue to support the event; and thanked them for their contributions to the island.
All went very well with the timing and serving of the lunch prepared by English Rose and E’s Oven. Following the feasting, the majority of the senior citizens found additional relaxation and enjoyment when they went out on the expansive patio of the conference centre. There, many of them danced to the music of Took and The Boys String Band.
The senior citizens remained there for another reason: the location afforded them a splendid and unobstructed view of the boats returning to Road Bay from the Anguilla Day round-the-island race. For many of the elderly spectators, it was an opportunity to witness the competitive and popular national sport, as well as to see the flotilla of accompanying vessels.
