This year the Anguilla Community College (ACC) has been working to develop its Gift a Skill Campaign with various entities and individuals. The Gift a Skill initiative is an opportunity for businesses and individuals to support education and training for their staff, their loved ones or any person in the community.
One of the long-time stalwarts of educational donations at the ACC is the first President of the ACC, Professor Delroy Louden and his wife Albertha, who established scholarship funds for Technical and Vocational Education at the Anguilla Community College. In particular, these are the Melville and Ermine Louden Scholarship Fund for carpentry and construction – and the Lilian V. Richardson Endowment Fund for baking. Both of these scholarship funds were established as a legacy in memory of the Louden’s parents.
This week the Loudens visited the College to meet with baking students who recently benefitted from the Lillian V. Richardson scholarship fund. Lillian Richardson was Albertha Louden’s mother. Born in Sandy Ground to Duncan Richardson and Ella Richardson (nee Carty), Lillian’s family kept animals, planted their ground and did a little bit of everything to survive. Lillian also loved to bake and turned her passion into a small business – baking cakes, bread, puddings and coconut tart for sale. Mrs Louden learned some of her mother’s skills which she still practises. However, establishing the scholarship was a way to formally remember her mother’s talents and to encourage people in the community to continue to value and develop baking skills.
The current baking class attracted 16 participants including teenagers, young adults and more mature aficionados. However, baking appears to be a very gendered area of interest. So far, twenty nine (29) students registered for baking courses in 2021 and 2022 of which only two (2) were male – that’s less than seven percent (7%) of all the baking students for the period! Each student received a 50% tuition scholarship. Classes are taught by Chef de Partie / Lecturer, Mrs Karimah Carty and cover a range of baked good including quick breads, yeast dough, pastry, specialty cakes and coatings and icings. The final class will be an exhibition session, open to the general public.
The ACC will be offering another baking course from April 18 to June 13. The classes will be on Mondays at the ACC, Long Path Campus. Interested persons are invited to register their interest. And, most importantly, small businesses, organisations and individuals are encouraged to support education and training by gifting a skill to persons on Anguilla to benefit from the educational opportunities at the Anguilla Community College!
For more information, contact Anguilla Community College on 498-8395 / 497- 2538, WhatsApp 476-8395, email info@acc.edu.ai or visit at the Long Path Campus.
– Press Release
