Celebrating survival

The tea party is produced through their management company, Black Tie Event Management Company. The first was held last year and if all goes to plan, their charity event will become the largest TT has ever seen.

In an interview with Newsday, Pierre said: “Tea By The Sea started last year 2016 and we aligned Tea by the Sea with The Shelter for Battered women because we found that our women and children were at risk. We wanted to help in whichever we could....

we can’t help the women because we are not qualified ourselves to do that so, we felt that we could have aligned a charity event with the shelter, by contributing to the cause we hope to help the women and children of our society which is the backbone of our country.” Tea By The Sea, scheduled for Chaquacabana Resort and Beach Club, Chaguaramas, on Sunday, will be a celebration event in aid of the Shelter for Battered Women and Children. The first event attracted 200 patrons. This year, Pierre hopes to increase that by 50 percent. The idea for the event was developed from looking at the daily news. “Everyday you read or looked at the news you either heard of domestic violence or death of a mother, women or sometimes, children. We found that the children would be vulnerable in cases where the father killed mother, mother killed father, any time there is that destruction at the head of the home, the children would suffer...,” she said. For Pierre and Giraud, the event is not simply about celebrating but educating as well.

“We invite representatives of the shelter to attend and educate the women in our society about the early signs of abuse. At the tea party, we create an environment where people are accessible to the information, can digest it and learn from it,” she added.

“Last year we had a domestic abuse survivor speak to the audience...

we found her through the media...We also had the vice president of the shelter educating the audience on the shelter’s services, how to access it and the difficulties and challenges faced by the shelter.” Like last year’s event, part proceeds will go to purchase goods required by the shelter, as well as full proceeds from a silent auction and raffle to be held at the event. The duo hopes that by 2020 Tea By The Sea will grow into one of the country’s larger charity celebration tea parties, catering to 1,000 patrons.

The duo hopes to also develop charity initiatives toward youth in the future.

In addition to a celebration cake for the shelter’s survivors, patrons can look forward to quality entertainment.

The University of The West Indies (UWI) Arts in Action, CEO and founder of Wholeness and Wellness Counselling Services Ltd, Dr Tracie Rogers will address patrons and saxophonist Pedro Lezama will entertain along with two live bands –Lujoe and the Gifted and Major Third, jazz flavour by Alisa Moore accompanied by Kristian Adams and a fashion show by Arlana Roberts and Richard Noel. The event begins at 2 pm and ends at 9 pm.

For more info: Black Tie Event Management-TT on Facebook and Instagram and visit Eventbrite for online tickets or to make donations.