The old and the young participated in the Inner Wheel Club of Georgetown’s virtual hat show last weekend and according to organisers it was a big success.
The club, which marks its 35th year in Guyana this year, was forced to go the virtual route when hosting its annual Easter hat show due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Winners of the categories were posted on the club’s Facebook page earlier this week.
Persons participating were advised beforehand to simply use whatever was available in their homes to make their hats and were encouraged to recycle, be creative and to have fun.
The categories participated in were – topical, comical, Original, elegant, and environmentally aware. Participants were required to submit a photograph of themselves wearing their hat to innerwheelhatshow@gmail.com by midnight of last Saturday.
However, because there was no physical attendance and the period of the current lockdown is indefinite, there could be no assured prizes or the annual fundraiser which is kept with the event.
“[We] sent certificates to the winners of each category and certificates of participation to all others. Since the current situation requires that we think differently about many things, this year – instead of trophies, we’ve decided to give the gift of giving and will be delivering a hamper on behalf of each winner to ten families in need due to the corona virus crisis”, president of the club, Sinikka Henry said.
One of the two winners of the elegant hat category, Guenet Gittens-Roberts participated from the comfort of her home in Florida. Guenet participated in the show as a teenager but left Guyana some twenty years ago. She had also participated at the club’s fashion shows, modeling wedding dresses. Gittens-Roberts said it was a blessing in disguise to participate in the competition for which she copped a winning prize which she shared with niece, Kwhame Gittens and friend, Carol Singh. The win came just in time for Guenet’s forty fifth birthday which she celebrated last weekend.
For her hat, Gittens-Roberts found an old hat lying around, taped two pieces of Styrofoam to the sides and later took flowers she found in her home which she stuck to the Styrofoam. To make it the garden she intended it to be, she added some butterflies she had in her garage. The entire process of making the hat she said, took several hours.
“That day broke the monotony in a very good way. Quarantine was harder than I expected and that (the hat show) was something I looked forward to. It was nice to connect with old friends”, Gittens-Roberts said.
Winners for the categories are – Olivia Gittens for the children in the original category and for adults, Gem Fraser. Topical category was won by four year old Aurora Cummings whose hat was themed ‘Easter Love’ and for adults, Sarah Ibrahim. The comical category was copped by sic-year-old Ashton Cummings with his hat themed ‘Angry Bird protecting the eggs’ and Tessa Fraser. Carol Singh and Guenet Gittens-Roberts won the elegant category while the environmentally aware was won by Rita Lowe along with the seniors modelling their hats themed ‘Lampshades of grey’ from the Serenity Adult Care Home.
