Best of Linden Magazine

Mar 19, 2023 News

– A celebration of People, Places and Institutions

By: Vanessa Braithwaite Moore

Kaieteur News – The 2023 edition of the ‘Best of Linden Magazine’ will be released in April, and Lindeners are excited to see which person, place or institution was voted the best. This will be the magazine’s third edition and has been released annually by Linden’s environmentalist and entrepreneur Samuel Wright who is also an executive member of the Linden Fund Trust. The magazine, which aims to recognize people, places and institutions in the mining town, artistically captures what Linden has to offer as a people, a tourism destination town, an investment destination as well as a residential destination.

Executive Producer Samuel Wright

It also captures the grass root men and women who are often overlooked as service providers but through their daily toiling, provide a necessary service to the community. These include small business owners, boat operators, taxi drivers, disc jockeys, trade men and women amongst others. It also captures the hospitality sector and the tourism gems of the town.

The town is also known for its unique gifts that are indigenous to its topography such as the blue lakes and towering white hills. There is nowhere else in Guyana you can find such aqua-touristic beauty. Linden is also the only town with a river running through it.

The magazine promotes the excellence of people, places and institutions through a public survey. It also celebrates those who contributed to the development of the town through academia, sports, music and heritage. Lindeners boast that their town is the producer of some of the best individuals across various sectors and fields. Some of the country’s best athletes, academics, artistes and trade men and women were birthed and raised in the bauxite mining town. Linden is also credited as the town where some of the nationally recognised events were birthed such as Mashramani.

Wright said the aim of the magazine is to show the world that Linden is more than bauxite, high unemployment rate, the 2012 struggle and the ‘1964 Wismar massacre’ and the ‘Son Chapman Massacre’. When you hear about Linden, those negative thoughts always derive.

the BOL second edition cover

“It’s really a celebration about what is good about Linden, the people who are selling, institutions that are doing well, and it is important that the magazine document that. So it is a celebration about Linden, the best of Linden, again because the narrative, we only talk about what is wrong for Linden and what is bad for Linden, it has challenges and I won’t attempt to avoid that, but we thought about what’s good and strong for Linden,” Wright said. Though Linden is steadily gaining recognition as a tourism destination with the media frenzy surrounding the blue lakes, the magazine features more than the blue lakes and details the hospitality sector of the town spectacularly.

“Part of it is showing parts of Linden that we don’t see and discuss and we feature the hotels, the ads in the magazine feature cook shops and bakeries, so from a tourism point of view, the magazine gives you some direct information about Linden for example if you are in Georgetown and you pick up the magazine and you come to Linden, you would know where to go, where the restaurants are, who are doing tours, so it’s a very good document to promote Linden and give those in Linden the access to know what is going on.”

Some of those captured in the second edition, include Best Nursery School – Pine Street Nursery; Best Principal – Ms. Camille Cummings; Best Eating House – Kay’s Klassy Diner; Best Caterer – Denise Gordon; Best DJ – Quelly Ranks; Best Reporter – Tracy Liverpool; Best Barber – RomainGilkes; Best Vegetable/Fruit Vendor – Kurtis, and Best Ferry Service – Adams Ferry.

“We have faced pandemics and scourges, exhibiting the resilience that we are known for, while accepting the lessons being taught. We celebrate the delightful variety of small businesses and the courage being shown by the youthful entrepreneurs,” Wright said.