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] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~