Scouts spend Emancipation Day cleaning Sir Lamont family graves

RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

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In­stead of spend­ing Eman­ci­pa­tion Day at cel­e­bra­tions or re­lax­ing with fam­i­ly, a group of Sea Scouts ded­i­cat­ed the pub­lic hol­i­day to clean­ing and pre­serv­ing the his­toric graves of the Sir La­m­ont fam­i­ly, for­mer own­ers of Palmiste Es­tates, while urg­ing cit­i­zens to help pro­tect Trinidad and To­ba­go’s her­itage.

Mem­bers of the 31st Trinidad Sea Scouts part­nered with the Palmiste His­tor­i­cal So­ci­ety to clear over­grown veg­e­ta­tion and tidy the cen­turies-old bur­ial site, one of the few re­main­ing his­tor­i­cal land­marks in the area.

Deputy Na­tion­al Com­mis­sion­er for Pro­gramme of the Scout As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go, Vin­cent Ra­moutar, said pre­serv­ing the coun­try’s his­to­ry was a shared re­spon­si­bil­i­ty.

“This site is one of the few that re­mains in­tact with­in the Palmiste area, and it’s our re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to pre­serve our his­to­ry and our cul­ture and en­sure we know where we came from,” he said.

Ra­moutar said it was im­por­tant for young peo­ple to un­der­stand the his­to­ry of the com­mu­ni­ties where they live. He ex­plained that Sir La­m­ont played a sig­nif­i­cant role in Palmiste’s de­vel­op­ment af­ter ar­riv­ing from Scot­land and be­com­ing one of the area’s prin­ci­pal landown­ers.

How­ev­er, he lament­ed the poor con­di­tion of many his­tor­i­cal sites.

“It is very heart­break­ing know­ing that we have all these his­tor­i­cal sites and there’s lit­tle be­ing done about it,” he said.

He not­ed that the ceme­tery has no prop­er ac­cess road and said the site could be­come a her­itage tourism at­trac­tion if prop­er­ly main­tained. Ra­moutar added that the Scout As­so­ci­a­tion hopes to strength­en its part­ner­ship with the Palmiste His­tor­i­cal So­ci­ety by in­volv­ing more young peo­ple in her­itage projects.

Palmiste His­tor­i­cal So­ci­ety board mem­ber Janelle Alexan­der praised the Scouts for sac­ri­fic­ing part of their hol­i­day to as­sist with the clean-up.

“Oth­er peo­ple could be rest­ing to­day, but they used their free time to come out be­cause this is a his­tor­i­cal park for us. The on­ly way we can use it in the fu­ture is to pre­serve it,” she said.

Mark­ing Eman­ci­pa­tion Day, Alexan­der en­cour­aged cit­i­zens to ho­n­our their an­ces­tors by pro­tect­ing the na­tion’s cul­tur­al her­itage.

“Hap­py Eman­ci­pa­tion Day to every­one. So much strug­gle has been over­come for us. Let’s con­tin­ue to grow, give and con­tin­ue to de­vel­op Trinidad and To­ba­go,” she said.