Gibby,
As you might already know, the perpetual growth of the July fourth has
inevitably forced the organizers to re-evaluate the financing capabilities
of the existing community organizations, and more importantly the need
to foster and maintain the tranquility and avoid any conflict regarding the
hosting of the event.
Please allow me to shed some light on the 2002 July Fourth celebrations. I
must first like to defer from your assertion that the soccer team is taking
over the organizing aspects of the celebrations, but rather inform you that
a general consensus was reached between all organizations most notably UGOA
(The United Gambian Organisation Of Atlanta) which hosted it in 2001 to
give the soccer team a chance to organize it for this year, so that the
rest of the community can attend to a much needed emergency fund.
As recently as May 28th, 2002 meetings were being held to harmoniously
create an organizing committee consisting of both private and non private
entities interested in participating, with a pre-condition that every
participant contribute to the newly formed Emergency fund-AGERA which we
belief is for the common good of all Gambians in Atlanta.
After numerous meetings, the agreement to allow the Atlanta Soccer Team a
chance to organize it in 2002 was reached as long they can device a
mechanism to allocate to the emergency fund which they have agreed to
although final arrangements are still pending.
The stance of the soccer team is to maintain the traditional July Fourth
programs with the inherent belief that funding should come from $20
contributions by all interested Atlanta Gambians as you pointed out in your
piece, starting with a fundraising on Friday, July 7th at Cleveland
Avenue, Soccer and Picnic on Saturday, Saturday Night Party at Cleveland
Ave, Sunday Picnic/Soccer Finals and a closing Awards and farewell party at
the YMCA on Sunday Night.
In closing, I would have to say that, although the VIVIANE as well as
ASSANE N’DIAYE & Maslaa bi organizers have made the decent gesture of
trying to see how they can harmoniously incorporate their programs with the
July Fourth programs with utmost adherence to contributing to the emergency
fund, it has been met with occasional resistance. This has therefore led
the former (Africa Fest) to have their event outside of the July fourth
programs time frame, and the latter (Juffure Productions) to cancel and host
their program after the July fourth weekend.
WE hope all Gambians anticipating the reunion weekend will have a good time.
_________________________________________________________________
Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
