Mas' Troupe for Adele School

Carnival 2007

This year's Children's Carnival parade will include a section from the Adele School.

Mas' camp leader, Jackie Butler is seeking to bring new awareness to fellow Antiguans and Barbudans that children with special needs should be given the opportunity to experience the festive carnival activities for themselves.

The Adele School, for both boys and girls is government funded, and caters for children who have special needs, ranging in severity, from cerebral palsy and autism, to less severe intellectual disabilities.

Butler said that they chose an "ocean" theme, because children can identify with it, having done social studies projects on similar subjects.

The troupe, which will consist of roughly 25-30 students, aged between 5 and 20 years old, will include friends and family of the Adele students, and is intended to be part of a fun-filled family affair, scheduled for Sunday, July 22, 2007.

The troupe has received sponsorship from Digicel, Jumby Bay, and Beth Abbott of Sterlings Jewelry store.

In addition to this, Horizons Supplies Ltd will supply the troupe with juice and water, while DJ Nez will provide the music.

The costumes are expected to be lush dramatizations of sea creatures, such as sea urchins, fish and octopus.

Fifth form students from the Antigua Girls' High School designed the main troupe costumes, while Mike and Imogen Hunt designed and are in the process of making the larger costumes. Kim Derrick, project manager for the troupe, has also been instrumental in coordinating and producing the costumes.

The idea was to get as many members of the pub­lic involved, in an attempt to break down societal taboos, which are associated with people who Live with disabilities.

Not all Adele students are physically challenged, most have cognitive delay problems, a lot bf which were not identified at an early age. Often, children get lost in the system, which does not have adequate resources to address their disabilities, and they end up at the Adele School.

As this is the first time the Adele School will participate in Carnival, Butler was happy with the number of students who came forward to participate. She said, "People don't understand the (persons with) disabilities and, therefore, choose to ignore them".

Mas' Troupe Gets Tizzy's Stamp of Approval

Sebastian led students from The Adele School in an harmonious sing-along of her hit song Expose, when she stopped by the institution yesterday to lend support to the mas' troupe, which is being built to hit the road for Sunday's Children's Carnival.

The get together was intended to "bring further awareness to the school," said troupe leader and volunteer Jackie Butler.

The Adele School caters to special needs children, and another volunteer, Production Manager Kim Derrick, said although they have varied disabilities, they are all "incredibly excited" about playing mas'. The children's faces lit up, when Tizzy arrived to offer support and encouragement and support for their first Carnival experience.

The soca artiste encouraged them to enjoy it to the fullest, after which, she signed the troupe's official banner, which reads "Getting 'Closer' with Adele School."

The children, mean­ while enjoyed dancing to music, some clad in their costumes, and they were clearly excited by the attention and encouragement they have been receiving:

Teams of volunteers have been working around the clock to complete the "ocean" themed costumes, which will definitely draw a crowd, when the troupe hits the road on Sunday.

Mike Hunt, creative designer and sculptor of the larger costumes, noted that he is "bringing expression back into Carniva1."

He also explained that they started building the costumes only two weeks ago, as a result of the sponsorship funds arriving late, which means there is still a lot of work to do before Sunday.

Derrick is appealing to the public to "cheer the students on," as a lot of them are nervous about the impending day.

Mas' Troupe making waves with Soca Diva, Claudette "CP" Peters

Jamming, jumping, singing and laughing along, you’d never guess that the hyper group of children decked in their green, blue, purple, and black were not regular children with regular interests. As they formed their little conga line and sang various hit songs for Carnival, the mas' players of the Adele Mas' Troupe frolicked and started their pre-jam as they awaited the children’s parade.

As Band Leader Jackie Butler entered the camp to gather the little revellers around, she asked them if they knew any songs by Claudette “CP” Peters. Screaming and shouting choruses of yes, some not even waiting to be told, they launched into various songs. Eventually the sea of jumbled CP songs turned into a massive wave echoing last year’s chart topper Make Waves.

That harmony was only short lived as the chorus was soon interrupted with shrieks of delights as the students watched their soca diva enter the mas' camp. Immediately taking in the realisation that the students were singing her hit from last year’s Carnival, CP shook off the shock and joined them.

Not ending there, they started singing this year’s favourite Go Claudette, Go. Singing along with the students, it wasn’t CP who was running things in that mas' camp, but rather the excited mas' players who soon changed the tempo again. Launching into the Caribbean Medley rhythm, they bellowed Flaunt It.

Amused, I watched as Claudette, visually awed and humbled by the students' performance, join in the merriment and sang along with them. Getting in the groove of the song, one brave young man edged closer and closer to the soca diva until he was really dancing with her. You can imagine the huge “I’m dancing with her” grin that was plastered to his little face.

Pausing the medley to thank the students for their performances, CP boosted their already high esteem to jam for the parade. Stepping out from the happy revellers, one shy “fish” thanked the reigning party monarch for visiting their camp, and then kindly asked her to sign their banner, which was previously signed the previous Thursday by Blade and Tizzy of El-A-Kru and Kenne Blessin. 

Finding her “space”, prodded by a horde of jumping pointed fingers, she signed the banner.

Sending Claudette into a serious stage of stupor, the Adele Mas Troupe launched into her 2002 hit Something’s Got a Hold On Me. I admit, I too had my mouth open. Literally speechless, Claudette watched on as they gave a boisterous rendition. But that wasn’t all. Their love for her did not end at her hits, but proved to further when they started singing her Ponche Diva song, followed by the ABI Bank Ltd's theme song.

Band Leader Jackie Butler, who is a teacher at the Adele School had mentioned that for years the students would return to school after summer break and would know all the Carnival songs, having watched from the parade and the shows (and commercials) at home. This year, celebrating 50 years, it was only fitting that instead of watching, they join in on the fun and be the ones on the television.

After a few photos were taken with CP, one very enthusiastic player shouted, “Okay let’s go!”

And off they went in the “Bountiful Sea” complete with five sections – Sea-urchins, Seahorses, Fish, Jellyfish and Octopus. Accompanied by DJ Nez to play all their favourite artistes, the students put on quite a show on the road. Impressed with both the costumes and the high levels of energy, many spectators were not even aware that they were from the Adele School.

In addition to capturing the respect and admiration of the crowd, the school also walked away with the second-runners up, first-runners up and winner of the princess competition, and the second runner-up for the prince competition.

After such a successful run in Sunday’s parade the Adele Mas' Troupe may just make a re-appearance for the closing parade.

Kudos to the staff, parents, volunteers, designers and especially the students of the Adele School for showing that Carnival is “for all arwe!”