Formentera Council gives gold medal to island teachers

This morning, the Formentera Council held a special, one-off plenary session to deliver awards for different honorary distinctions in 2014. The awards will be handed out as part of the Diada de Formentera official ceremony held next Thursday, 24 July, at 8:30 pm at the cinema.

Plenary attendants voted unanimously to give the Formentera Medalla d'Or (Gold Medal) to the teachers of the island; to all those who have contributed with efforts and vocation to shaping the state of education on our island. This collective is formed by individuals who, generation after generation, work actively to transmit both knowledge of local heritage and an esteem of and connection to our land. The Council celebrates these individuals who educate, teach, instruct and train not just children but also adults, giving them the tools necessary to confronting future challenges.

Representatives at the plenary session also voted unanimously to grant three Sant Jaume awards ('premis') to the following groups: the Formentera Civil Protection Volunteer Corps; music group Aires Formenterencs and Societat Esportiva Formentera.

The Civil Protection Volunteer Corps was formed in the year 2000. It was the desire of those in attendance at the plenary to recognise “[the corps'] generosity and commitment to solidarity. Through active participation in prevention and protection, through the organisation of events for the entire community, [the Volunteer Corps] has been an expression of human solidarity and involvement in community life.”

For their part, the Aires Formenterencs, a music group formed in 1988, the distinction is intended to honour the group's “twenty-five year trajectory – as artists and as musicians – over which time [they] have led the charge breathing new life into traditional Pitiüsa music. In addition, [the Aires] have enriched the canon of popular song in Formentera, contributing new, finely-crafted and original material that has become a point of reference in Mediterranean musical culture.”

The proposal to nominate the Societat Esportiva Formentera referenced the association's “long trajectory in sport; inculcating values of competitiveness, perseverance and hard-work, values that are important to island of Formentera large.” The society's nomination was also intended as a “pat on the back for their efforts this year, efforts which meant the youth team's ascent to the national category in addition to the first team's disputed – for the second year running – rise to second B division.”

Attendants of the plenary also decided to grant the distinction of Adoptive Son to Sabadell-native Enric Majoral Castells (1949). The reason for the distinction – “the intimate and profound relationship between Castells' own art and Formentera, his home since 1973 and starting place of the artist's self-taught trajectory in jewellery.” The Council plenary wished to highlight that Castells “today holds the distinction of master artisan; creator of a line of production inspired in a Formentera that is at once natural, traditional and Mediterranean. [Castells' Majoral jewellery] has today left Formentera's coastline behind and made the island famous around the world.”

The final order of business at the plenary: a vote – unanimously passed – to grant the posthumous distinction of Favourite Son to Pere Serra Colomar (“Pere Gallet”), born in Formentera in 1928 and who passed away earlier this year. The plenary vote was intended as recognition for “[Colomar's] contribution to the island's first associative movements, especially the Unió de Pagesos (Rural Residents' Union). Colomar was also a founding member of the Formentera Stockbreeders' Association and the Formentera Association of the Elderly. Colomar gave these associations his all in organisation, energy and devotion.” The plenary also wished to show its consideration for “the firm democratic and civic values, the ironlike defence of traditional Formentera culture that made Colomar a pioneer in establishing the first social services in Formentera.”

The list of individuals and collectives chosen to receive recognition by the Formentera Council is elaborated by the Comissió de Distincions Honorífiques, a group with representation by all of the participants of the Council plenary sessions.

La Medalla d'Or de Formentera and the Sant Jaume awards are the maximum distinctions that can be granted by the Formentera Council. The goal is to reward merits, qualities and circumstances of Formentera individuals and associations, factors which have contributed to improving quality of life or increasing the prestige of the island.”