FREEPORT -- The awards presentation for the Edward St. George Games took place this past weekend at Taino Beach in front of the memorial, on a grassy mound shaded by royal palms, where the Late Mr. St. George, the late revered Co-Chairman and part owner of the Grand Bahama Port Authority is buried.

Adding further to the torrent of praise since Mr. St. George's passing on December 20, 2004, Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Hon. Neville Wisdom, at the awards ceremony, thanked the Grand Bahama Sports Council officials for honouring Mr. St. George by naming the Grand Bahama Games in his memory.

"I just want to say to the people of Grand Bahama," declared Minister Wisdom, "that if indeed you respect this giant of a man the way you say that you do, if you love him in the way that you say you do and if you honour him in the way that you say that you do, then you might want to emulate some of those sterling characteristics that he stood for, the most important of which were humility and kindness."

The Edward St. George Games, which featured constituency competition in most sporting disciplines, concluded a week earlier with the High Rock Raccoons taking the overall championship. In 2nd place was the Marco City Bulldogs; in 3rd was the Eight Mile Rock Blue Jays; in 4th, the Pine Ridge Cutters; 5th, the Lucaya Braves and 6th, the West End. [...]

Mr. St. George personified humility and demonstrated kindness, Mr. Wisdom said.

"And so I say to you here, the best testimony, the best way you can demonstrate to someone that you mean what you say, is in a very practical and pragmatic way.

"Edward St. George deserves commendation and I am certain that his lovely wife would agree with me that is how to show it: just by being humble; by being kind to each other; and by being excellent in the things that you do.

Mr. Wisdom added: "We have a wonderful country, and I've been bragging from Helsinki 'til now, that, "We beat the world! We beat the world!'; we beat China; we beat Great Britain; we beat Canada; we beat Australia ... we beat the world, man. And that's us.

"When Tonique Williams-Darling won her award I gave her a bookmark that my wife had prepared. And embossed on this bookmark was a statement that came from a portion of a speech given by the late Sir Lynden Pindling.

"That particular statement – in 1972 --spoke about, 'What is a Bahamian?' And he went on to describe this wonderful character with the indomitable spirit that he called a Bahamian. And by his definition that man (Edward St. George) was truly a Bahamian. He met all of the requirements, outside of birth, to be Bahamian.

"He demonstrated the love of a Bahamian; he demonstrated the compassion; he demonstrated the strength, and he demonstrated certainly a feeling of love towards the Bahamian people.

"So, by Sir Lynden's definition," Minister Wisdom ended, "Edward St. George was a real, real, true, true Bahamian.

"Therefore, I salute you and I thank you for agreeing to have this event named in his honour." [Bahamas Information Services]