Hummingbird Newsletter - April 1, 2023

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April 1, 2023

The Hummingbird Newsletter

A Word from Our President

Spring is in the Air!

Spring is a beautiful time of year when the winter weather subsides, and the flowers begin to bloom.

Because of this, spring is often associated with hope and rebirth—two major aspects of the resurrection

of Christ. Easter, the day to celebrate this resurrection, even happens during the spring season.

During this time of year many people feel rejuvenated, both in their lives and in their faith. As they shake off that winter chill, they might consider starting a new positive habit or recommitting to their prayer life.

No matter where you are in the world, one thing that everyone loves is when the spring season comes around. Spring is a great time of the year; the world seems to be renewed.

Here are a few special things about spring that many people agree on.

1. Love – Spring is the time for love to flourish – it’s just the way nature works. Studies have shown that more people fall in love in spring than in any other season. Love makes the world go round, so if you are looking for a lifetime partner, get searching this season!

2. Open Windows – Spring is a time when you can open all your windows and let the fresh air and mild breezes flow in. Spring allows you to freshen your home and makes you feel energetic, positive and rearing to get going with life!

3. Return Of Birds – The birds return when spring starts and you get to hear their beautiful chirping and songs from outside of your window. Bird watchers love this season when birds return from other climates which are entering their cooler seasons.

4. Clothing – Spring allows the transition from heavy clothing to lightweight clothing. It allows you to mix and match outfits, and try new colorful outfits that flatter your body you have been keeping healthy and exercised throughout the winter months.

5. Sunshine – Spring is when the sun shows its face again for longer periods of time and heralds warm days ahead. It’s a season that isn’t too hot or cold and the temperatures are ideal for playing sports or engaging in outdoor activities and pastimes. The sky is blue and the light clear days reflects your inner happiness.

6. Happy Colors – Spring also brings out the beautiful colors of the earth. From the blue sky and luscious greenness of the grass to the myriad of blossoming flowers, spring is a rainbow of colorful delight.

7. Spring Cleaning – No one likes to clean, but for some reason when spring rolls around we have an urge to spring clean, renew and throw out those unwanted items. Spring gives us motivation and a desire to move on with life.

8. Holidays – Spring is a great time to go holidaying. The weather is right, the mood is right, and with all those week-ends, there is little to stop you.

9. Baby Animals – A time of rebirth, baby animals are in abundance during the spring season. Baby ducklings, baby rabbits, baby birds- just cute baby creatures everywhere!

10. Express Yourself – Spring somehow makes you want to express the joyful and optimistic side of yourself, to show off your best side. So dress up, step out, and smile for all the world to see.

Blessings to the families, members and friends of

TnTGA

Click here for 2022 Picture Callery

Featured Trinbagonian

Camille Wardrop Alleyne

DOB: October 12, 1966

A rocket designer, space scientist, internationally acclaimed speaker, trailblazer and world leader,

Dr. Camille Wardrop Alleyne is a force to be reckoned with. Her accomplishments in the field of space exploration have been nothing short of extraordinary. In the highly technical fields of science and engineering where women are in the minority, she is one of the most-recognized women in aerospace engineering and one of the few women of color to serve in senior technical leadership position at the NASA. Born in Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Alleyne migrated to the United States at the age of 17 years old and with her passion for space, she pursued a career designing and developing space and rocket systems.

She has spent her 25-year career advancing the areas of aerospace and space technology development, including space vehicle design and test and space research. In the last few years, she has emerged as an expert in the areas of space, science and technology application for sustainable global development. Dr. Alleyne currently serves as the Deputy Manager for the Commercial Lunar Payload Services at NASA Johnson Space Center where she develops the strategy and manages the execution of NASA's primary mission to the return to the Moon, first with US commercial companies. Prior to that she served as the Assistant Deputy Associate Administrator for Programs in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters where she provided technical and executive leadership on NASA’s planetary, earth, heliophysics and astrophysics science missions.

Dr. Alleyne has a deep commitment to being of service and making a difference in the lives of young people all across the world, and as a result, has been and continues to be in a unique position to create immense change through her expertise in STEM, advocacy for global education, especially with regards to girls. She is a leading advocate for creating the next generation of female scientists, engineers, technologist and explorers - work she does through her Brightest Stars Foundation.

She holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Howard University, a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Florida A&M University, a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering from University of Maryland, College Park and a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from the University of Houston. Dr. Alleyne has received countless awards and recognition for her excellence both nationally and internationally. Having a dream of one day flying in space, Dr. Alleyne was a finalist in the 2004 Astronaut Selection Program. She is a private pilot and is also know as an icon in the Caribbean in the fields of Science and Technology. She resides in Houston, Texas and has a daughter Kiarra, a graduate student at Columbia University.

Article courtesy of THE INTERNATIONAL ASTRONAUTICAL FEDERATION

Featured Trinbagonian

Sheldon P. McLeod

CEO NYC Health & Hospitals/Kings County

Sheldon P. McLeod is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County. He was appointed CEO in January 2018, having previously served as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Kings County Hospital since October 2014. As CEO, McLeod’s responsibilities include setting the strategic direction for the hospital, and providing executive oversight for the clinical, operational and financial management for the institution.

Prior to joining Kings County Hospital, Mr. McLeod served in progressively responsible leadership roles for over sixteen years at NYC Health + Hospitals, and other health organizations across the City, including COO at NYC Health + Hospitals/North Central Bronx, Chief Transformation Officer at New York City Health + Hospitals/Jacobi. He has held positions at Montefiore Medical Center; the NYC Department of Health; St. Luke’s–Roosevelt; and the Primary Care Development Corporation.

Under Mr. McLeod’s leadership, Kings County continues to excel in the Brooklyn healthcare landscape having developed innovative, cost-effective solutions for enhancing quality, competitiveness and revenue by implementing new business strategies at the hospital. Mr. McLeod also works collaboratively with community-based organizations to address the social determinants of health, and health equity in the communities served by Kings County Hospital.

Mr. McLeod is a Fellow of the American Essential Hospitals, and serves on its Board of Directors as well as the Bushwick Starr board of directors. Among his core beliefs are that communication, transparency and accountability are keys to driving change within an organization, and that creating a nurturing environment for employees to learn, grow and adjust to organizational change will ultimately create better staff and patient experience, and a healthy and successful organization.

Article courtesy of NYC HEALTH + HOSPITALS

Thanks to our Sponsors

Spiritual Shouter Baptist Liberation Day

March 30, 2023

Message From

Prime Minister of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago

Dr The Honorable Keith Rowley

Today, on behalf of the Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, members of my family and myself as Prime Minister, I extend heartfelt and sincere Greetings to the Spiritual Shouter Baptist community on its Liberation Day 2023.

Every year as I extend greetings to this community, I am overcome by what is for me, an enduring emotion.

I have come to understand that every time I grappled with the history and painful experiences of the early Baptist faithful, I experience an inner awakening, feelings of an infusion, and an awakening of consciousness.

Today, its members stand proudly as equal citizens of the Republic, with their dignity established. Thanks, to this unique, democratic country we all have built — and despite our many shortcomings, we continue to build and hold positive outlooks for better days.

This was not always so for the early Baptist worshippers. On slave plantations, African people were considered sub-human, mere chattel, or tools and objects — “a brother to the ox,” as one reference said, or “animals cut off from light, music, and dreams”.

Later, in the early post-Emancipation period, and into the early 20th century, the Spiritual Shouter Baptist faithful were deemed among the least of African people.

They were profiled, in various ways, as “noisy,” “hideous”, and “uncivilised”.

Then came the laws to prevent them from worshipping the Almighty in the ways that they saw him. But their beliefs proved stronger; it went beyond the oppressive, colonial laws, for they trusted in the Lord.

Psalm 33 says:

“We are waiting on Yahweh;

He is our help and our shield,

For Him in our heart rejoices,

In his Holy name we trust

Yahweh, let your faithful love rest on us,

as our hope has rested in you.”

They felt assured, according to John that “God is light, and, and there is no darkness in him at all” and that in spite of the harassment laws, and the pressure from the established churches that “we live in light, as He is in light.”

In their pain and isolation, they, however, may have felt a warm connection that stretched from their West African roots, to other forms and examples of discrimination against the Africans.

They, however, remained undaunted, seeing their religion as a living process, within the total society that is Trinidad and Tobago.

For the faithful, it has been a long road from the imposition of the Shouter Prohibition Ordinance 1917 to its eventual repeal on March 30, 1951.

From our vantage point today, we can say that in every experience there are negatives, but for the Spiritual Shouter Baptists, there were heavy loads of daily negatives that their faithful carried — the hostile laws, disadvantages in the education system, economic exclusion, the cultural contempt, the questions of class and colour.

However, arising out of their experience, the recently departed, Professor Gordon Rohlehr saw a “Revolution in the perception of the Self”, which today is part of the ongoing process of African self-affirmation, and self-assertion, and this process can be identified in our rejection of the oppressive plantation system.

Today, that lineage is evident in the patterns of our folktales, proverbs, rhetoric, our performances, our literature, our dress, our foods, our flair or Trinbago “style”.

The Spiritual Shouter Baptists have shown us that, out of their experience, religion is a living, dynamic and absolutely necessary process — more so, now than ever before — within our larger Trinidad and Tobago society.

Today, we will celebrate with the Spiritual Shouter Baptist in their festivities at the newly-built Administrative Complex in Couva, thanks to the contributions from the Government’s Ecclesiastical Fund. This complex is the first step, and hopefully, within the near future their celebrations will be conducted within the walls of the edifice of the Spiritual Shouter Baptist Cathedral. We trust that this accomplishment is a grand milestone on the happy road to unity and brotherhood.

Go forward, Brothers and Sisters, with the words of John “I am the vine; you are the branches”, and “as the Father has loved me, I have loved you, you also should love one another.”

Happy Liberation Day