Robert Pinkerton Awardee…
PRESIDENT of the New York-based non-profit organisation, Green Light Guyana Educational Project Inc., Guyanese-born Ms. Salome Osborne was recently honoured by Cambridge Academy Alumni Association International (CAAAI), for outstanding community service.

The former student of the now defunct Cambridge Academy in Georgetown, who hails from Bagotville, West Bank Demerara, but has lived and worked in the United States (U.S.) for 25 years, was conferred with the prestigious Robert A. Pinkerton Award on July 10.

The occasion was the Alumni Association’s 2010 Reunion held in the Glen Terrace Banquet Facility in Brooklyn, New York, under the theme ‘Giving Back and Honouring a Worthy Tradition.’

Mr. Robert A. Pinkerton was Founder Principal of the privately-owned Cambridge Academy that was located in South Road, Georgetown.

Still alive in New York, he celebrated his 90th birthday on the day of the reunion and presented the awards.

The letter informing Osborne of her selection as an honoree, signed by the Association’s President, Dr. Aubrey Bentham said, in part: “It gives me great pleasure, on behalf of the Cambridge Academy Alumni Association International (CAAAI), to inform you that you have been selected as one of two recipients of the Robert A. Pinkerton Award for Community Service.

This recognition is meritorious of your outstanding service to foster and facilitate venues for academic excellence. I extend to you, as this year’s recipient, hearty congratulations, because it is a well deserved tribute to your academic nurturing and commitment.”

The other honoree was Mr. Frank L. Douglas, Ph.D, MD., an industry veteran with 24 years experience as a leader in health care, pharmaceutical research and entrepreneurship.

HUMANITARIAN MISSION

Osborne, now in Guyana on a humanitarian mission to distribute clothing and other supplies to children in three West Bank Demerara communities,  Bagotville, Nismes and La Retraite, as well as cater to other needs of the schools, presented hundreds of  backpacks, containing uniforms, footwear, notebooks, pencils and reading materials, to boys and girls last Wednesday.

The awardee said the achievement should have been recognised publicly and published about them in newspapers, magazines or electronic media, either in Guyana or in the U.S. on a sustained basis, at least for a five years period.

Osborne, a religious woman with a huge heart of love, is looked upon by the children of the beneficiary communities as a community mother.

“I was quite excited and happy when I got the letter,” she said.
Her selection was not based only on what she is doing in Guyana but in the U.S., too.

Osborne, now retired, has a small tax preparation business in New York, after serving with distinction at Morgan Stanley Financial Institution on Wall Street, one of the top ten security firms in the U.S.

Having prepared tax documents for 22 years, she said she is now giving back and, so, as part of her community service, she prepares the documentation for senior citizens and full-time students free of charge.

She began working with Morgan Stanley in 1986 and moved up to the level of Assistant Vice-President, eventually, becoming Vice-President of Retirement Plan Operations, the post from which she retired four years ago.

“I’ve had a very successful 20 years with Morgan Stanley,” she asserted, with an air of satisfaction.”  And, as a true patriot, Osborne gives the credit to her homeland.

“I think I can attribute my success to my training here, in Guyana, because I worked here and all my schooling was here,” she pointed out.

She thanked her teachers and parents who, she assured, led by example.
“I have so much kudos for my parents, teachers and all my elders. They taught us so much about giving, helping and sharing.”

Her mother, Bathsheba Osborne was a housewife and her father, Felix, a carpenter.
About her childhood, she said: “As children, we had great times together.  There were twelve of us until the death of my twin.”

She declared: “It takes a village to raise a child” and recalled the well intentioned intervention of elders into the behaviours of children growing up in the villages.

The adults were always watchful and concerned, feeling that they also had a role to play in instilling values and ensuring that children did not step out of line.

Osborne attended Nismes Methodist School which, at that time, was housed  in a church building before going on to Smith’s Congregational School (now Smith’s Memorial) in the city and then Cambridge Academy.

FREE LESSONS

After graduating from Cambridge, she taught for a while as she always wanted to be a teacher. Because she was, by nature, driven to looking out for the less fortunate, before leaving high school, she gave free lessons to children preparing for the then Common Entrance Examination.

Her teaching experience was at Queenstown Moravian School in the city and Campbell’s Academy, a private secondary school in Bagotville.

She entered University of Guyana (UG) in 1979 and graduated from there with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management and Accounting and migrated to the U.S. in 1985.

Summing up her 25 years in the U.S., Osborne described that period as very rewarding but brutal at times and challenging.

Having kept focus on her goal, to work there and return to Guyana, she worked hard, always with the Guyanese people.

Now, she travels home twice yearly to look after the needs of the targeted West Bank Demerara children.

With a deep, abiding appreciation for her country and its people, her dream to be able to give back to the community that moulded her and do something positive to better the lives of the less fortunate, has manifested in the works of Greenlight, through which she seizes every opportunity to encourage children to go to school, stay in school, remain focused and be the best they can.