MANDEVILLE, Manchester – The Manchester Homecoming Foundation begins its homecoming celebrations for 2006 with a round-table discussion, starting at 4:00 pm today at the Golf View Hotel.

Head of the planning committee, Custos of Manchester Dr Gilbert Allen, told journalists at a press briefing that the round table would be focusing on ways to pull together the “intellectual, physical and natural” resources of the parish for its further development.

Other major activities planned include a church service at the Mandeville Baptist Church, starting at 10:00 am on Sunday, November 12, and a banquet and awards ceremony at the Kendal Camp Site and Conference Centre on Saturday, November 18.

For this its third homecoming celebration since its inauguration in 2004, the Manchester Homecoming Foundation will launch the Manchester Homecoming Foundation Scholarship for the benefit of the parish’s young people, “particularly its young men who seem to be most in need”, said Allen. Ten million dollars is to be raised over the next five years to fund the scholarship programme.

Two of Manchester’s “finest sons”, business leaders Jackie Minott and Wayne Chen are to be honoured at the awards ceremony.

Allen said a broad alliance including the parish council, the political directorate, the business sector, schools and churches had come together for the homecoming celebrations.

Mayor of Mandeville Desmond Harrison pledged the support of the council, noting that the local authority in tandem with the Manchester Development Committee was currently putting together a sustainable development plan for the parish. When completed the plan would, among other things, provide for industrial, commercial and residential zoning in Manchester, Harrison said.