Montego Bay: Sixteen-year-old Cornwall College sixth form student, Dorrell McCalman, was bathed in sweat when he left the podium located in the spanking new Town Hall of the Montego Bay Civic Centre, Wednesday afternoon.

But McCalman did not sweat in vain. His masterful delivery of a paper on the western city and its sister city bonds earned him the title of Montego Bay Junior Mayor for 2001.

He had the audience spellbound from the start, and his opening salutations earned him a round of applause that forced contest chairman, councillor Charmaine Gillette-Richards, to ask the audience to contain themselves until the end of his remarks.

In a soft-spoken, but clearly enunciated speech, McCalman entertained and informed his audience at the same time, reeling off facts and foreign names, such as Verradero.

No stranger to success, McCalman already held a VMBS and Horlicks scholarship under his belt prior to dominating the Junior Council Competition. Born in Kingston, he spent his first three years in Hanover before moving to St James, where he enrolled at primary school, and later Cornwall College.

Clearly better than the other participants, who nevertheless did a good job, McCalman is the representative for the Montego Bay North Division. Over the next year, he will work with the councillor for the division, a position presently held by Kirk Taylor.

On Wednesday, Taylor clearly spotted a winner after McCalman ended his presentation and fell gratefully into his chair.

“My councillor,” councillor Taylor said proudly as he grabbed the young boy’s shoulders.

But his words could barely be heard over the deafening applause in appreciation of a job well done.

Second year student at the Montego Bay Community College Shakira Moore, who spoke about the Dome/South Gully, was selected as the deputy junior mayor.

The peer counsellor, who loves to sing and write poetry, presented a comprehensive paper which examined the history of the Dome and provided several proposals for the future use of the area that now covers the South Gully. Moore represented the Montego Bay West Division.

Other participants included Moore’s schoolmate Synita Peterkin, Kadeisha Hendricks from Anchovy High, Gregory Simms from Cornwall College, Montego Bay High School’s Haydee Lindo, Franz Lawrence from the Sam Sharpe Teachers’ College ad St James High’s Denise Cooper.