The Tribune

By RIEL MAJOR

Debbie Ferguson was delighted when she was presented with the best kept yard award by the Bahamas National Pride Association yesterday.

The 62-year-old Bain Town resident said she has enjoyed cleaning her yard and her corner each morning for about 18 years. “Every morning around 6.30 I get up and clean my yard and when I’m done, I go and clean the road,” she said. “I like to be clean, I like to feel clean and I like everything around me to be clean. I always felt like I can’t clean my yard and not the road because the dirt from the road will blow in my yard.

“I can’t go out looking clean and (where I’m coming from isn’t clean), your home is your pride. Just how you have pride in yourself, have pride in the environment.”

Joanne Johnson, BNPA director, said she was in disbelief when she first saw Ms Ferguson’s home. “It’s so beautiful and we congratulate Ms Ferguson,” she said. “We understood she cleans the entire street and she paints the wall at the end. She usually weeds the grass on the sides of the street and plants all of the plants, so we just want to encourage this sort of environmental effort in this country.”

Ms Johnson said she wants Bahamians to be “environmentally conscious of our country”. “We want residents to try so we noticed some of our areas are really getting distressed and we want residents to just take this on. We want to encourage because we noticed when we put signs, everyone starts cleaning up, so it’s an effort for everybody to keep the environment clean. This is like environmental tourism…we need her, we need people like her. We like 1,000 more persons like this to do this, so we congratulate her, she has done an exceptional job.”

Barbara Evans, co-pastor of Fellowship of Word and Discipleship Centre, said many people are celebrating with Ms Ferguson. Mrs Evans said: “I have known her for many years and Ms Ferguson is one who loves to keep her surroundings clean, not only her surroundings but the entire neighbourhood.”