Tonia Husbands, Miss Big & Beautiful pageant organiser
Many people set resolutions as a benchmark to the goals they want to accomplish for the new year. I am one of those, even though I strongly believe that a resolution can be done on any day of the year.
My resolutions for 2016 are simple as I try to make them as attainable as possible so that I can reach them. I guess that is one of the mistakes we make is that we try to set goals we are likely not to reach. I intend to exercise more regularly, eat healthier and make more time to go to church and study The Bible and most importantly be the best Tonia I can be, eliminating all negativity and just doing me.
When I set my resolutions I take a moment to myself to reflect on the year that had passed. My successes and failures help me to make resolutions for the year ahead.
As I reflect on 2015, I made many mistakes in my personal and professional life which I endeavour not to make in 2016 and I am looking forward to good health and prosperity in whatever I do.
Sharon Carew-White, tent manager, House of Soca
My resolutions for 2016 are to exercise more, to relax more and by that I mean spend time with older people. My parents are getting older and I think that time spent with some older folks, you get a little bit more wisdom from it. It relaxes the whole body and mind.
As I look back on 2015, I find it was a fairly rough year tent-wise – the obstacles and stumbling blocks we would have faced and the challenges we would have had in trying to get promotion and events off the ground. As a tent manager, for me, as I reflect, the success does not always outweigh the challenges and the limitations that we do have. I’m still looking forward to, and hoping that Barbados can come up with a one-stop solution to event planning as opposed to encountering all the stumbling blocks and location.
This is the 50th year of our anniversary of Independence and I think that Barbadians should educate themselves more on culture so we can decide that what we have which is Barbadiana can live on for another 50 years. I think that we don’t put a lot of focus on to culture – culture being food, culture being music, culture being our people and therefore we are losing our identity. In 2016, I would like us as a country, to look forward to that after 50 years of Independence.
Yolanda Holder, actress, comedienne, emcee
My resolutions for 2016 and beyond are to continue to eat healthy and exercise a little more. And As I reflect on 2015, I’m disappointed in Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler’s handling of VAT as it relates to calypso tents. I was pleased with the appointment of Professor Eudine Barriteau as principal of the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill campus; elated and extremely proud of our Special Olympic athletes who came home with 17-plus medals from the World Games in Los Angeles but I was saddened that no national event was held to celebrate them.
I’m looking forward in 2016 to the 50th anniversary of Independence celebrations and my hope is that the planning and execution will bring a strong sense of industry for our young men and women and pride for Bajans as a whole.
Andrea Simon, president of Soroptimist International of Barbados
I’m looking forward to 2016 just being a fantastic year. Intentional living and living life to the best of my ability is really my focus in 2016.
One of my goals will will be working on improving my health and fitness.I used to be a runner and will definitely be seeking to get back on track with my running and pursuing intentional acts to improve family, personal and professional life.Â
Professionally, my focus will be developing my career, that’s always very important to me as well as becoming a more effective leader. I believe you should always strive to seek out opportunities where you can grow and develop and so I want to come out of my comfort zone.
When it comes to Soroptimism, being president of Soroptimist, we’ve had a good year. We executed all of our events successfully. We commenced our initiative to raise awareness of human trafficking in the secondary schools. We’ve had some excellent presenters for our New Horizon’s Project at the female unit of the Government Industrial School and at the Soroptimist Village and Activity Centre, we increased the activities for seniors as well as rentals to seniors in need in the community.
So, it’s been a really good year although it did have its challenges but we were able to overcome them and I’m looking forward to continuing with our fundraising objectives in the new year.
