The Tribune

THE Bahamas National Festival Commission announced the student winners of their naming and logo competition at an award’s presentation this week. The competition, which was sponsored by the commission and launched in December 2013, challenged students throughout the Bahamas to come up with a name for the national festival being planned for May 2015.

“Several months ago, Prime Minister Perry Christie announced the government’s plan to develop a carnival-style festival in the Bahamas. One of the first things the commission set out to do was to organise a naming and logo competition that would allow Bahamians to participate in the process of coming up with an original name,” said Robert Sands, spokesperson and member of the commission.

“The competition was offered to every school in the entire Bahamas and I am very happy to announce that two students from Xavier’s Lower School submitted the winning entries with the name Bahamas Carnival,” said Mr Sands. He congratulated sixth grade student, Gabriel Sastre and fifth grade student, Zia Joos, and presented them with certificates of achievement along with their winning cash prizes. They were the top out of 43 students, both submitting the name Bahamas Carnival. The commission did not present any awards in the logo category.

Gabriel and Zia thanked the school, their parents and teachers for encouraging them to participate in the competition; acknowledging that the support made them confident they would be chosen as the winners.

“I had no doubt in my mind that I would win,” said Sastre. The students were surprised they both came up with the same name, but shared similar sentiments on their thought process; when they brainstormed about a name that would be fitting for a national festival they said Bahamas Carnival was the best choice.