The auditorium at Achilles Elementary was packed wall-to-wall on Sunday, with standing room only as people gathered for the 2019 Guinea Heritage Day celebration. The annual event has become so large over the years that it outgrew its former venue, the Abingdon Ruritan Club, and needed a new home, said Guinea Jubilee chair Tara Thomas.

In the auditorium, student art entries were prominently on display, the winning Guinea fine art painting and photograph awaited unveiling, and Guinea memorabilia and 2019 Guinea Jubilee T-shirts lined the walls. The 2019 Guinea Jubilee Cookbook was on sale, containing over 900 recipes by over 200 contributors, and dozens of cakes were on display, ready for the silent auction. Backstage, over 50 young ladies waited to take part in the 2019 Miss Guinea Jubilee Pageant.

Graham Blake spoke about the heritage of the Guinea waterman—the area’s long history of oystering and crabbing, dredging and tonging, and working on the water in various other w...