Sabrina Natasha Elson Installed President of the Kiwanis Club

My name is Sabrina Natasha Elson, formally Bess. I was born on the 15th of April, 1977 in a small South American country called Guyana. Based on what I learnt from my mother, there was an interesting circumstance leading to my birth at the Georgetown Hospital in Guyana. There were some concerns by her family when my mom was with child for a slightly longer period than the regular nine-month timeline. To compound the situation, she had an accidental fall from a platform ten feet high at her home in her advanced stage of pregnancy and miraculously escaped serious injuries although she had plunged into a state of unconsciousness. She was kept in hospital for a few hours for observation purposes as concerns were raised about the safety of the child she was carrying. That must have been my introduction to the resilience that I have found to be so necessary today, as I was delivered quite as healthy as any normal newborn and that was as far as the predelivery concerns went.
I learnt that as I began my journey of growth, I did almost everything later than what was accepted as normal. I was still dragging when I was supposed to be creeping and was still creeping when I should have been walking. As I visualized that scenario, I became convinced that that may have been the source of delayed energies which I now exhort in abundance. Yep My upbringing for my first six years plus was in the form of traditional Caribbean fashion, Guyana being closer linked to the Caribbean than its South American counterparts, where discipline and respect were the hallmark of the home completely controlled by the adults of the family. My Kindergarten and part Primary level schooling allowed for a refreshing gathering of children of the community who gleefully gobbled up the opportunity for fun and exercise while learning.
I remember being part of a dance group that participated in a Festival called Mashramani – Guyana’s major National Festival which means celebration after hard and successful work. It is Guyana’s equivalent to Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago.
I figured that if I had more time in the country of my birth, I certainly would have availed myself to many more of the opportunities on offer that coin the culture of the land.
But that was not to be. My mom, my elder sister, my younger brother and I migrated to the USA on the 14th of April, 1984 to join our dad in Brooklyn, New York. It was the day before my 7th birth anniversary, and so I had the distinction of departing one country at one age and arriving in another at another age. We had arrived at JFK International Airport just after midnight on the morning of the 15th.
Being in a totally new environment, it took me a little while to realize I was in a land of different culture permanently, and the sooner I had adjusted would have been better for me. It wasn’t easy but I was eager to fit into my new habitat, and all the nostalgia of the past and the fear of what was unknown ahead of me disappeared over time through schooling that provided for the interaction with my peers and gradual elevation to adulthood – of course with the guidance of my dedicated parents.
I graduated from Berkeley College in 2003 and embraced Corporate America well prepared for the next stage in life. I then took the seriousness of life one step further when I got married to Lascelles Elson on the 6th of December 1996. We were blessed with our first child, Nathaniel, on the 10th of August, 2003 and when the time was ripe again for such responsibility, our second son Ethan came into being on the 10th of October, 2015.
With a happy family and a wonderful family life to date, coupled with a job that encourages me to love life even more, I am now ready to take living to yet another experience. I am ready, willing and able to make further contributions to a society that has generally been good to me. I am ready to serve as President of Kiwanis Club of Linden, a position I intend to treat with respect and take seriously as well. I must point out, though, that I intend to be myself by calling a spade a spade and being realistic about situations, a characteristic of mine that has led people to refer to me as “feisty” and a “go getter.”
I thank God for all that has been made available to me.