Brooklyn group hosts annual Walk-a-Thon to support Vincy athletes at Penn Relays

The Brooklyn-based educational and cultural group Club St. Vincent, Inc. will on April 6 host its annual Walk-a-Thon to support Vincentian athletes participating in the illustrious Penn Relays Carnival at the Franklin Field Stadium at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

President Sandra Millington told Caribbean Life that the 9th Annual Walk-a-Thon will take place a Brooklyn’s sprawling Marine Park, entrance at 3000 Fillmore Ave., starting at 9 a.m.

“We are asking for volunteers from our member organizations to pledge; and to encourage friends, family members, neighbors and co-workers to also make pledges and to join us in the walk,” she said. “The funds raised will assist in providing housing for the athletes, who will travel to the United States to compete in the Penn Relay games during the last week in April.”

Millington said over 15 students, a co-ed team from Thomas Saunders Secondary School and the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Boys Grammar School, are expected to represent St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the Penn Relays.

She said that hosting the Walk-a-T

Participants warming up for Walk-a-Thon. Photo by Nelson A. KIng

hon over the years has been “an absolute joy” for the members of Club St. Vincent, Inc.

“We assist with providing housing for the athletes, meeting with the athletes who travel to the US to participate in the Penn Relays and socializing with them after the competitions,” she said. “We learn during our conversations with them about their goals and ambitions.

“We are pleased with the athletes who come to the US to compete in the Penn Relay games,” added Millington, stating that the athletes are “disciplined, well-mannered and have serious goals set for the future.”

She said the Walk-a-Thon also gives her group a chance to include members of other organizations in the US, and other Vincentian and non-Vincentians persons.

“We arrange a bus trip to Pennsylvania and have great comradery for the last weekend of April,” said Millington, adding that “it gives us a nostalgic feeling” of the days, when the Boys Grammar School held in-house sports at the Grammar School Playing Field.

She said that, over the past 10 years, over 100 athletes from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, primarily students from the Thomas Sanders Secondary School, have competed in the Penn Relays.

She noted that coaches from colleges across the United States have attended the Penn Relays for “the sole purpose of recruiting athletes to represent their colleges”.

“So, let us all invest in our youths,” Millington said. “The cost to us is minimal, but the returns can be great.

“Case in point, the young lady who is blazing trails to the August 2024 Olympics is a student from Thomas Sanders Secondary School, who was a participant in the Penn Relay games, when she was only13 years old,” she added. “It was thought then that she was ‘one to watch.’”

“Club St. Vincent, Inc. really enjoys being involved with the 9th Walk-A-Thon,” Millington continued. “The walk serves a useful purpose.”

The group will also be hosting a Paint & Sip instructional workshop on March 23, at St. Paul’s Church in Flatbush – 157 St. Paul’s Ct. (corner of Church Avenue), Brooklyn – to help defray the cost of hosting the Vincentian athletes at the Penn Relays.

For more information, call Millington 718-692-4540; Ancilla Friday 718-986-9490; Verna Arthur 646-915-2791; Pamela Mornix 718-801-7514; or Francesca Sam 347-586-2095.