The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

LOCAL Organising Committee chief executive officer Lynden Maycock said he’s extremely pleased with how the exhibition of the past 50 years of the CARIFTA Games is coming together in the old war bunker in the parking lot opposite the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium.

Maycock has commissioned veteran historian Stanley Mitchell to create the exhibition for the viewing public when they come to the Oaktree Medical Center’s 50th anniversary of the games, scheduled for April 8-10 at the stadium.

Mitchell, who has attended just about every annual regional junior track and field competition since its inception in 1972, said he was thrilled when he was approached by Maycock to put together the museum for all to see.

“When he asked me if I could do something over there I told him ‘no, the room wasn’t as big as my bathroom at home,” Mitchell said. “A young lady, who works for the LOC, came over and she said ‘man, this is a big room.”

That was the genesis of Mitchell getting the work started. “We are recreating 50 years of CARIFTA,” Mitchell said. “I think I was chosen because this will be my 40th CARIFTA that I’ve been there. During that time, I’ve video taped and recorded all of them.

“I have in the bunker, starting from the 8mm, then the 16 mm, then it went into VHS and then mini DVD and now it’s on a little chip. So I’ve had to try to secure all these moments from all over those years and somehow, most of it I have.”

During the exhibition, which will be free of charge, Mitchell said spectators will get to see all of the medal winners during the games from 1974 to 2022. Mitchell also intends to show a movie called ‘Through the years,’ which will highlight some of the exciting times that the fans enjoyed over the years. “You will see iconic pictures of people who planned all those years during the games up on the wall,” Mitchell revealed.

There will also be a tuck shop where the spectators would be able to purchase paraphernalia for the 50th CARIFTA Games at the end of their visit into the museum.

The bunker, according to Mitchell, was used for training for World War II before the soldiers were sent into battle. It was created to mimic what was being done in a real war situation. The bunker has since been transformed.

“We are trying to be delicate on how we transform the bunker so that when we are finished, it can go back and be preserved to what it was before with all of the photos from World War II back in place,” Mitchell stated.