THANKS FOR COMING, SEE YOU NEXT YEAR
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Images courtesy Shirley Galvin, first featured on staugustine.com
George Wilmore, known in the Bahamas as “Sho Bo the Conch Man,” had a dream that young people from his Bahamian Abaco Islands could participate in a cultural exchange with his favorite city in America, St. Augustine. He was not aware of the historical ties between Abaco and St. Augustine. British Loyalists began leaving St. Augustine in 1783 to seek a new home in the Bahamas and settled in the northern Bahamas, especially Hopetown, an early settlement.
These wonderful island people welcome many Americans to their islands every year but the young people have limited opportunity to interact with kids their own age from America. Likewise, our young people have very limited knowledge of the lives of Bahamian kids. Both groups of kids have no knowledge of their past connection.
We are beginning to learn the story of the people who lived here in St. Augustine and the descendents now living in the islands. The relationship is being rediscovered and retold to a new generation. Historians on both sides of the Gulf Stream are working together to discover the fascinating story of the loyalists’ journey from the Carolinas to St. Augustine and onward to Abaco. Our communities will be infinitely richer with the mutual knowledge of each others’ culture and history.
Our annual Bahamas Island Music Festival will raise funds to bring Abaco high school kids to St. Augustine to participate in sports exhibitions, music, and a traditional Bahamian festival parade known as Junkanoo. St. Augustine students will also be traveling to Abaco to participate in ecological tours, schooner sailing, and marine biology dives. Our Abaco partners are also raising funds and organizing events that will support our kids mutual activities.
The best part of the festival is that it will fund a scholarship to Flagler College for a top Abaco student, The Junkanoo Scholarship.
Thank you for your support of our annual Bahamas Island Music Festival. Join in the Junkanoo Parade, bring your lawn chair, enjoy the island music and food. What a great way to help kids.
