The Booker Washington Institute (BWI) Alumni Association has formally launched and unveiled a welcome and anti-Ebola billboard posted near the Roberts International Airport (RIA) in Margibi County and made a donation of faucet buckets to two key clinics in the community.
A press statement from the association says the red and white, clearly-inviting modern billboard of high quality design and printing was erected through a financial support from the Jeety Trading Corporation whose CEO, Upjit Sing Sachdeva, popularly known as Jeety is a member of the BWI Board of Governors.
BWI alumni attending the unveiling ceremony on Saturday, June 18, sent amusing echoes across the airport community as they sang their famous school ode (O dear Booker-T…) to the silent envy and pleasure of guests and commuters.
A statement from the alumni association quotes the outgoing president of the BWI Alumni Association, Mr. Jonathan Paye-Layleh, as saying the billboard planting was one of many initiatives undertaken by his administration.
Explaining the purpose of the project, Mr. Paye-Layleh said the BWI Alumni Association was touched by the devastating impacts of Ebola to erect the billboard which carries both welcoming and Ebola prevention messages.
In addition to its welcome and farewell messages, the billboard has the inscriptions that read: “Make Ebola prevention a way of life and stay safe” as well as “Join the global fight to defeat Ebola”.
“This is our way of identifying with efforts still be exerted to get the public to appreciate the need to protect themselves from Ebola,” Mr. Paye-Layleh said.
BWI Alumni Association’s former president and current chairman of the association’s Board of Advisors, Mr. Mohammed Kanneh, cut ribbon to the billboard, cautioning the public to continue fighting until Ebola no longer poses a national threat.
Mr. Kanneh, a member of the BWI Class of 1981, hoped that those using the RIA highway will not only read the sign but will also live by the message it portrays.
He thanked Mr. Jeety for supporting the alumni association’s drive to undertake the project and hailed the outgoing leadership of the alumni association for this and other initiatives.
Also in remarks, the oldest BWI alumnus at the program, General Paul T. Wennah of the Class of 1971, a former dean of boys, called for greater unity among BWI graduates so that the alumni association will grow from strength to strength.
The incoming president of the BWI Alumni Association, Mr. Koffa Tenbroh, and his corps of officers who will be taking over on June 25, were present at the ceremony.
BWI alumni working at Firestone and RIA turned out in a sizable number to participate in the occasion, according to the press statement issued by the leadership of the BWI Alumni Association.
The billboard launch preceded the celebration of BWI’s 87th founding anniversary which is slated for Saturday, June 25.
The celebration traditionally sees an alumni association-led parade on the streets of Kakata, sporting activities and an indoor program on the BWI campus.
This year’s celebration, the first under the regime of the new principal, Attorney Harris Fomba Tarnue, promises to be grand, as already, says Mr. Paye-Layleh, the outgoing president of the alumni association, more than six hundred souvenir items produced for the occasion have all been sold.