Roland "Pa Ben" Bryson depicted in the Carnival 2019 children's colouring book.
PHILIPSBURG--St. Maarten Carnival Development Foundation (SCDF) will produce a children’s colouring book for Carnival 2019 as one of the many projects to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Carnival.
SCDF said on Sunday that it is actively trying to revive youth participation and interest in cultural aspects of Carnival and has chosen to do so starting with the children in elementary levels.
SCDF President Alston Lourens said the colouring book will feature about 15 pages of Carnival icons and things typical to Carnival. Well-known Carnival artistes and other stakeholders will be depicted as well as Carnival trucks, something representative of the pageants and more. All drawings are being done by local tattoo artist Chris Forde.
Lourens said the books will be distributed to children free of charge “The colouring book will not just be pictures to colour. We will also include basic information about each person and thing included in the colouring book. It is important that they not only colour a picture of Roland ‘Pa Ben,’ for example, but also learn about how and why he was important to Carnival and St. Maarten,” he said.
“This is just one of the projects the community can look forward to for Carnival 50. Moving forward, the SCDF will place a lot of focus on getting young people positively involved in Carnival on all levels. We are using Carnival 50 to start this important endeavour and we hope we can get the cooperation of the community for other youth-related projects, in particular when they are directly involved positively and culturally.”
