MEET the Js of St George.
One thought pageantry was not his strong suit. The other was once bashful and afraid of public speaking.
But for the 2015 St George parish ambassadors Justin Clarke and Jalissa Proverbs, the road to the Spirit Of The Nation Show this Saturday has made them face their fears head on.
“I’ve been asked on a number of occasions to join the programme but I was never too keen on the pageantry. But then I actually found out what it was about and the benefits that you can get on a personal level; it was a no-brainer,” said Clarke.
The 21-year-old Proverbs admitted to being shy.
“I did not know about it until I was at work and somebody was like, ‘Jalissa, why you don’t be an ambassador’? and I said, ‘An ambassador? Why should I be an ambassador? I’m too shy to be ambassador’,” she recalled.
She was unsuccessful the first time she applied but persisted, and this year, she says proudly, “Here I am, the St George ambassador.”
Clarke, who is pursuing an economics and management degree at the University of the West Indies, was full of admiration for his parish partner.
“From what I’ve seen, Jalissa is very outgoing. She is definitely the brains of this operation because I’m a little forgetful and my mind can be in the clouds, but Jalissa takes copious notes at all the training sessions and she does not miss anything.”
Proverbs, who lives at 2nd Avenue, Greens, said one of her favourite features in the parish was its landmark Gun Hill Signal Station, with the Lion at Gun Hill and a picturesque view of the St George valley.
For Clarke, of Redland, one of the most fascinating things about the parish was its people.
“All you have to do is say that you are the parish ambassador and it immediately invokes this hidden passion in people,” he said.
“I’ve never seen people rally around somebody they don’t know. They don’t know me personally but as long as I tell them I’m the parish ambassador, they are willing to give anything and they give good advice.”
During their eight months of training, the two were challenged to develop the theme Come, Taste, See, St George IS The Place To Be.
The two ambassadors, who share a love for Chelsea football team in England, said their concept was very detailed. The Come represented the placement of signage at places of interest in St George accompanied with a brief description.
The Taste was a concept called the breadbasket where persons from St George were challenged to create traditional Barbadian dishes in a healthy way; while the See portion included bus tours of the rural parish.
Clarke said they toured communities which people on the bus did not know about and also got to know places they themselves did not know.
The training sessions meant different things to the two. For Proverbs it was the public speaking.
“Now that we had training in public speaking, I am able to control the butterflies down there and to express [myself] louder and to give good eye contact,” she said.
Clarke, a budding photographer, said etiquette was a good accent of the progamme.
“There are some simple rules that we learned about – how we’re to sit, how we’re to address persons in authority – that we generally did not know. So that stood out a lot because then it showed us just how far back we were compared to where we are now.”
Both have plans to transfer the knowledge they learned to others. Proverbs has a love for travel, and said she will join the St George parish ambassadors committee to help the next two ambassadors.
Clarke said he plans to open a charity to assist young men from ages ten to 16.
What are their chances of winning?
“Of course winning would be wonderful but that is the second objective. Our first objective is to put on a good show,” said Clarke.
“Although we are the ambassadors for St George, [we want] to let persons in Barbados know about what the young people are doing and to spread positivity.”
Proverbs added: “It’s not just about the pageant. We have hard work, we have a speech. Everybody thinks it’s the Spirit Of The Nation show [where] we get to wear our pretty gowns, our costumes . . . .
“The show is a small part of what we’ve done, so if you haven’t done anything, you won’t have a good show.”
