NCDF launches in fine style

The National Carnival Development Foundation (NCDF) was formally launched at the Cascadia Hotel last week.

The hotel’s ballroom was transformed into a mini-Carnival arena with pan, mas and calypso throughout the night. In his welcome address to the specially invited guests, Secretary David Mc Kell gave a brief backgound on the formation of the organisation, the journey they took before attaining NGO status on June 14, 2003, under the Companies Act. This was done to represent and promote the interest of members of the Carnival fraternity and mas bands in particular. Chairman Donald Little in his own address stated that NCDF is now the only officially registered organisation representing mas men. Little spoke of some of the major problems facing their industry but stopped short to inform the gathering of the mission statement of the NCDF, which is to promote and encourage the expansion of the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival as an industry, benefiting socially, infrastructurally and financially, the members of their organisation and the mas fraternity as a whole.

DOMA President Gregory Aboud, NCC Chairman Kenny de Silva and Port-of-Spain Mayor Murchison Brown all brought greetings to the newest Carnival outfit. While de Silva and Brown spoke about the relationship between their organisations and the mas, Aboud spilled out his deep personal feelings as to what mas is all about to him and expressed the wish for some of the good old days of Carnival to be brought back.  Presentations of a bouquet, a mas headpiece and a t-shirt to Minister of Culture and Tourism Pennelope Beckles were all done by Launch Committee Chairman Mike Antoine before he moved the vote of thanks. After that, guests were entertained by characters of both traditional and conventional mas, as well, the live performance of the band Pure Energy. A large cross-section of the Carnival fraternity in Trinidad and Tobago was represented at the event. Some of them included Peter Elias, Keston Nancoo, Colin Murray, Michael Headley, Randy Glasgow and other members of the executive of the NCDF, namely Mahendra Maharaj, Juliet de la Bastide, Peter Reynald, Thais Hart, Ian McKenzie, Earl Patterson, Roger Pierre, Alvin Daniell, Edmund Hart and Francis Stephen.