New York --

The mother of all picnics, the New York picnic, has shown its mettle once again on Saturday, August 7, 2010 at the beautiful Roy Wilkins Park in Jamaica, Queens. This year’s picnic was another fundraiser for the newly acquired Ghanaian Cultural Center in the Bronx.

This is the second year the picnic was held at Roy Wilkins Park in Queens. The turnout was a little bit more than last year. The picnic was planned with a lot of sporting activities in mind but for the lateness of most of the attendees, they were not able to take advantage of the beautiful weather and great sporting activities. While the perennial lateness within our community tend to hamper a lot of fun activities, comments from those who attended the picnic mainly speak to the organizers ability to attempt extending the hours a bit longer into the evening.

They complained that the closing hour of 6:30 pm is a bit too early for an event in August when typically, the sun sets around 9:00pm. In general, they value the picnic and deemed it a success

As usual, the diversity of Ghanaian culture was on display, with the collective harmony that is characteristic of Ghana, at its best. The Kpanlongo group led by Zeek and cultural troupe entertained participants with different rhythms. The climax of the afternoon was the performance by LUCKY MENSAH who was in town for a tour of the USA. Kweisoul, a renowned Ghanaian MC and hiplife star and others were on hand to make sure the afternoon and indeed the entire day did not disappoint. As his name can attest, we were lucky it was a resounding success to have Lucky Mensah on stage.

The New York picnic has always been a success in terms of its content for many years. NCOGA, the organizers of the picnic can now boast of being the only Ghanaian powerhouse organization in America, attributed to the success of future superstars through the picnic, the only biggest Ghanaian outdoor event in America that showcases local talents.

The new Consul General in New York, Mr. Ernest Lomotey, thanked the audience for taking pride in their country by showing up in their numbers to support and advertise Ghana to the outside world. Noting that this was his first picnic, he thanked the organizers for putting together the event and promised to attend future events. Ms Simone Dawkins, Delta’s In-flight manager presented two round trip tickets to Ghana to the winners at the park. Dr. Benjamin Dodoo, Lawyer John Akpalu representing AGLA and other dignitaries were on there to grace the occasion.

Local DJs : Katabo, Divine Sounds, ELove and host of DJs worked together as a team to entertain the crowd..

NCOGA would like to thank the following sponsors for their support for this year’s picnic: Western Union, Delta Air Lines, Moneygram, Ambassadorway Travel, Prestige Travel, Trinity Travel and Black Star Travel for each donating round trip tickets to Ghana, Sam Tuga and Associates, Heafa International, GhanaMart, American Medical Centers, Sky Brokerage, LLC, Samari Shipping and all the vendors who made this year possible.

A big kudos to this year’s organizers for a job well done!!!