New York Ghanaian Council Re-Defines Annual Picnic

The annual summer family picnic organized by the National Council of Ghanaian Associations in New York is about to receive a much needed priming, one that will see it transformed from a mere eating and drinking jamboree into a more meaningful annual engagement to the mutual benefit of Ghana and the United States.

And it couldn't have come at a better time as President Obama and 40 or so African heads of states are locking brains and jaws in Washington DC to come up with how we can invest each other and reap a whirlwind of mutual benefits.

Thanks to the City of Mount Vernon and the Ghanaian community in the New York area, the wheel is already grinding.

Ghana brings its immense trough of God-given natural resources, a rich culture and a pool of highly educated, accomplished and law abiding immigrants. Mount Vernon brings a huge human, financial and technological resources that stand to transform all Ghana and beyond.

It starts with the up-coming NCOGA-Mt. Vernon Ghana Durbar & Cultural event this Saturday, August 9, 2014 in the City of Mount Vernon.The event will include a parade, a durbar and Ghanaian cultural festival – a parade of chiefs and elders chaperoned in their rich colorful garbs, led on by the booming sounds of traditional drums and songs of old. The parade starts promptly at 11:00 a.m. from City Hall, 1 Roosevelt Square, Mt. Vernon, N.Y. 10550 with the Mayor of the City of Mount Vernon the Honorable Ernest Davis as the Marshall.

The leaders will sit in state at the gorgeous Hartley Park to receive guests as is done at home as he world renowned Odomanka Kyerema Asante recounts the tales of African triumphs and tragedies in drum and dance. Vendors will network and advertise their wares.

This will be followed by the general feel good celebration of summer and harvest orchestrated by a concert of music.Even this will be done with a purpose. Mt Vernon's own hip hop impresario Shane Dean is scheduled engage in performances that will advertise the Thirst for Water Project, a project that is meant to bring clean water to underserved communities in Ghana through the sinking of boreholes.

This entire event promises to bring the people of Mount Vernon closer still to Ghana and its rich culture and vice versa. We must build on the fount of goodwill that Ghana and City Hall Mount Vernon enjoy in one another.

At the end of it all, the right trusting environment would have been set for serious discussions in corporate halls and offices. Only then can we celebrate our culture as one of the dynamic tools to the growth and development we seek for our homeland. Join us on Saturday August 9, 2019.

NCOGA Secretariat
NYC

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