Red Cross Society Children's Carnival return to the stage

The TT Red Cross Society Children’s Carnival (TTRCS) returns to the stage after being halted because of the covid19 restrictions. Though the crowds was small, the children aged three to 17 walked on the stage at the Queen’s Park Savannah with their unique, creative and colourful costumes.

Unlike adult mas, the children had themes that were well fleshed out. Like previous years, the children followed themes such as nature, culture and history.

Some did costumes inspired by Chinese culture, places in TT and some did tributes to artistes such as David Rudder, Black Stalin, Singing Sandra, and Fay Ann Lyons.

The first to walk across the stage was three-year-old Yuri Allen with his costume called Horsy Horsy. He was dressed in a shiny cowboy costume topped off with the hat and even a red, white and black toy horse head and, despite the rain that was about to come pouring, Yuri was covered by his white cowboy hat.

After him was “Baby Tic Toker” Anaiah Prosper who walked on with a bright pink dress covered in frills which complimented her blue and purple head piece. She also brought on a toy car that was decorated to match her costume, but was mostly decorated with a yellow cloth with rainbows printed on them. She also placed third in the Babes in Arms category.

Analee Rampersad who was in the age six to nine category had an extravagant red and gold costume that came in two different sets, a head piece resembling an umbrella with streamers coming down the side of her and a skirt extending out and forming a ball-gown. While showing off her costume to the judges, she made sure to move every part of the costume to give the full effect of her portrayal which was the Spirit of Carnival. Analee placed second in that category.

Coming first in the boy’s ten to 13 category was Antonio Rampersad who was dressed in an enormous costume that hid him almost completely. It was gold and red with pictures of the steelpan neatly placed in all areas of the costume.

In her message, president of TTRCS Jill De Bourg said the society launched a Public Giving Campaign.

She said, “We are extremely proud of the impact we have on our communities through working with people whether they are in crisis or in their everyday lives. We appreciate the trust TT has in our brand and through our Public Giving campaign, we hope to inspire every citizen to support our mission.”

Also present was Tourism, Culture and the Arts Minister Randall Mitchell who said while speaking with the organisers of the Children’s Carnival, they discussed ways to get bigger crowds and more participants.

“I was speaking to the organisers and they are talking with the Ministry of Education and they are going directly to the primary schools. I think getting the primary schools back is important, but I would understand that the primary schools coming out of covid19 are involved in different things, getting back to normal and coping with the post pandemic situation. I think next year it will be even bigger there.”

Mitchell also recalled his time participating in the event while he was still a primary school student.

When asked about his costume he said, “I remember vividly, we were waving a dollar flag because at that time the most popular song was 'Ah Going to Panama.'”

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