Friday, June 23, 2006

The Brac BPW tea party at the Heritage House is an
annual affair

A tea party at the Heritage House for all the girls from Cayman Brac in tertiary education, hosted by the Brac Business and Professional Women's (BPW) Club, has become an annual tradition.

Members of the Brac BPW send a small stipend to all girls from the Brac at college, and also send them letters of encouragement while they are away.

This is in keeping with one of the stated aims of the Club: to encourage women and girls to acquire education, occupational training, and advanced education; and use their occupational capacities and intelligence for the advantage of others as well as themselves.
The tea party provides a social situation in which the girls can chat informally with members and tell them how the school year has been, and also becomes an opportunity to discuss any problems they may have had, said Brac BPW President Claudette Upton.

Each girl was invited to bring one guest - her mother or guardian - and, in addition this year, we also invited all the young women we have helped over the past five years and who are now on Island," she said.

Also on the guest list were the winner and runner-up in the recent Miss Teen Cayman Brac contest, Tiffany Scott and Natalya Scott, though Tiffany was unable to attend. Both girls are beginning their first year of college education in September.

"We enlarged the scope to get more past students involved in the tea party. We'd really like to have more younger women involved. Most of the members are middle aged or older," said Ms Upton.

One past recipient of the club's efforts, Melanie Scott, is now a member and the current Secretary, and another has made enquiries to join.

The Grand Cayman BPW now has two separate clubs, noted Ms Upton. The Young Business and Professional Women's (YBPW) Club has completely different programmes and projects.

"We don't have the population to support two clubs, but we hope younger women participate, it will naturally take on the activities geared towards that age-group," she said.

"The only way to keep the club going in the long run is to attract young women now to get young blood into it."

Ms Upton went on to explain that, while the focus of the club is to help young women in post-secondary education, they also help out business and professional women.

For example, they assisted local songbird Georgia Isaacs to attend the world renowned Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, who had invited her to sing with them.

They also helped local restaurateur Sharon Conolly after Hurricane Ivan because she did not have insurance to cover her losses.

When Cayman Brac High School Art Teacher Alison McLeod took an art class to Florida to visit museums and art galleries, the club again recognized an opportunity to help expand professional and personal outlooks.

One of the aims of the club (as stated in the Constitution) is to promote the interests of business and professional women and support them in taking action to improve the status of women, and to work for high standards of service in business and the professions.

"The mission statement essentially says that we both encourage women to take advantage of existing opportunities and also try to help them create new opportunities for themselves," said Ms Upton.

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