Turks and Caicos Islands Film Festival On Thursday, November 11, focused on the youth of the Turks and Caicos when it hosted an environmental and musical exposition at the Edward Gartland Youth Centre in Providenciales.
The primary and secondary school-age children got the opportunity to learn much more about protecting the environment, species of sharks and what they do, free-diving, how to create music and much more.
The event was also made possible through the Hartling Group of companies, which include, The Shore Club, The Palms and The Sands.
Though the students enjoyed every segment of the presentation, among the most popular was the music studio, spearheaded by local musicians Greg Been and Eustace Swan and the Oculus goggles sharks presentation.
Been told NewslineTCI that all the students, at different times, were called in the room to record pieces of lyrics, which at the end of recording, would be engineered into one song.
“Out of the Film Festival production is to incorporate some of the schools and produce a song around the theme about the environment. So, for the past week or so, we have been working on a beat and some lyrics, to incorporate 11 different schools to sing different parts of the song.
“After this is done, we are going to go in post-production and compile the song and put out a song that will be released later on,” Been said.
Sharks for Kids, which teaches children about the ocean, using sharks mostly, was also included in the setup. They fit oculus goggles on them with videos of all species of sharks and their way of life. This experience triggered fright and excitement among the children.
The students also learned ways in which they can compost their waste domestically, rather than shipping it all to the landfill.
Free-diver, Samantha Kildegaard, was on hand to teach the students the art of free-diving.
Roxann Wake-Forbes, Manager for the Edward Gartland Youth Centre, was elated at the variety of displays and educational opportunities imparted to the children in attendance.
“The goal is to encourage and to talk to them about sustainability, conservation, the importance of our reefs. We have got some amazing musicians as well who show the students that through education and through music they can make a difference.
“We are beautiful by nature, and this is the generation that we need to keep educating, and to keep them moving in the right direction. Thanks to the Film Festival and for their support.
“This year we have got kids from Grand Turk, kids from South Caicos, thanks to Inter-Caribbean Airlines, and we also got two schools, one primary and one secondary from North Caicos. We are pleased to have the other islands included this year, and we hope to make it bigger next year,” she said.