A Girls’ Brigade donation to the Legislative Assembly that languished unseen for four decades is back in the public eye.
Sir Cyril Black, a British MP and international vice president and treasurer of the Girls’ Brigade, brought the crystal sculpture to Cayman and, on behalf of the youth of the islands, presented it to the Legislative Assembly at the opening of its present building on July 31, 1972.
Thereafter, the glass gift sat in a back office of the Legislative Assembly until it was remembered by Olive Miller, president of the Cayman Islands National Council of the Girls’ Brigade, who set in motion a plan to make the sculpture available for public viewing.
Zena Merren-Chin, clerk of the Legislative Assembly, initiated a search to find the glass memento. Once it was located, Ms. Miller set about finding a transparent case to enable it to be displayed publicly.
When nothing available worked, it was decided to special order a Perspex case to house the sculpture. Friends Richard Trull, Jane Ellen Bodden in Florida and Helen Hislop pitched in to order the case, take delivery and bring it to the Cayman Islands.
During a break in the House sitting on Sept. 10, two members of the Girls’ Brigade presented the new case to Speaker Juliana O’Connor-Connolly, Premier Alden McLaughlin, and Deputy Leader of the Opposition Bernie Bush. The sculpture is displayed on the clerk’s table, next to the Mace, and will be moved to an anteroom leading to the assembly chamber.
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