U.S. Secretary Of Interior, Sally Jewell, To Keynote 99th Anniversary Of Transfer Day

ST. CROIX — U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, above center, will make her first official visit to the territory on March 30 – 31, a U.S. Department of Interior press release has revealed. Joined by Assistant Secretary for Insular Areas Esther Kia’aina, Secretary Jewell will meet with Governor Kenneth Mapp, deliver keynote remarks at the 99th Transfer Day Ceremony and join the Executive Committee of the Climate Change Council to discuss how the administration is working with island communities to prepare and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Ms. Jewell will also visit the Virgin Islands National Park in St. John to make an announcement about the President’s Every Kid in a Park initiative with local fourth graders from the Julius E. Sprauve School. The initiative is part of an overall strategy to connect young people to the outdoors, allowing fourth graders to go to www.everykidinapark.gov to obtain a pass for free entry for them and their families to more than 2,000 federally managed lands and waters nationwide for an entire year, including all federally managed parks in the territory.

On March 31, Jewell will join Island leaders and community members in St. Croix to deliver keynote remarks at the 99th Anniversary of Transfer Day – when the United States purchased the Virgin Islands from Denmark – and participate in a naturalization ceremony to welcome 50 new American citizens. After the ceremony, Secretary Jewell and Governor Mapp will host a joint press conference.

The Department of the Interior, through the Office of Insular Areas, is responsible for coordinating federal policy with the U.S. Virgin Islands, the territories of American Samoa, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The Office of Insular Affairs’ mission is to foster economic opportunities, promote government efficiency, and improve the quality of life for the people of the insular areas.