By K. NANCOO-RUSSELL
Freeport News Reporter
As the Bahamas has already begun celebrating the nati-on's 35th Independence Day, the country's embassy in Washington D.C. will also be hosting some special events in commemoration of the day.
The celebration officially kicked-off with The Baha-mas' participation in the D.C. Carnival on June 28, where the Junkanoo group "The BJAM" won two first place prizes for Best Small Band of the Year and Best Live Band.
The BJAM group comprised of a group of Bahamians living and working in the tri-state area. A contingent from New Providence also travelled to Washington to augment that group's presentation.
Ambassador C.A. Smith praised the group for their performance and noted that their success was a great start to the Embassy's Independ-ence celebrations.
"I'm delighted that a Junk-anoo gorup was able to participate in the D.C. Carnival and I'm ecstatic that not only did they participate, but they competed very well and they were able to win first prize in two separate categories," he said.
"The Carnival was a huge success, and The Bahamas was literally exposed to hundereds of thousands of persons who were exposed to the culture of The Bahamas through Junkanoo."
Expressing his belief that it is important for the government to provide an opportunity for Bahamians living abroad to participate in Independence celebrations, Smith said the other activites planned are going to provide a special treat to all Bahamians living in the Washington D.C. area.
On Independence Day, Thursday, July 10 a cocktail reception will be held at the Hall of the Americas, the headquarters of the Organization of American States (OAS) from 6:00 p.m - 9:00 p.m.
The Grand Bahama Chora-le, which will be in Washington, D.C. from July 9-13 on the invitation of the Ambassador, are slated to perform at this event.
Bahamians as well as Ambassadors from 34 OAS countries will be invited. Members of the Black Caucus, members of the Congress of the United States and dignitaries from the Department of State are also expected to be in attendance.
On Friday July 11, the Chorale will be hosted to a reception at the Ambassa-dor's residence.
The Chorale will then appear in concert at The People's Community Baptist Church, in Silver Spring, Maryland on Saturday, July 12 from 7:00 p.m., where it will perform a range of music, from classical to calypso.
Ambassador Smith ex-plained that he believes the GBC will do a stellar job of representing the country, and said he was looking forward to seeing its performances.
"We believe that the Chorale will provide the Washington community with a great sample of their music... and they will receive some good exposure at the events as well," he said.
A Thanksgiving Service, which will serve as the official Independence church service, will be held at Holy Comforter Episcopal Church, on Sunday, July 13 at 9:30 a.m.
The sermon will be delivered by Reverend Father Curtis Robinson, Rector of St. Jude's Church in Smiths Point, Grand Bahama.
