THIEVES broke into the Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club (RHTYSC), at Corentyne, Berbice, earlier this week, carted off some $2M in booty and forced the organisation to reduce plans for 130 projects in the current year. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Secretary, Mr. Hilbert Foster is still shocked, after discovering that $400,000 worth of toys, which could have been distributed for the next three Christmases, were stolen.
Also missing were bales of cloth, hundreds of Haynes t-shirts and cartoons of ‘Fila’ boots amongst other things.
Foster told the media he was so confused that it was doubtful that the club’s plan to host the annual awards ceremony, tribute to teachers and other recognition ceremonies can be hosted.
“This has a big effect on the club. Most of the programmes will have to be cut back,” he admitted.
But, even as he counts his club’s losses, Foster threw partial blame on the municipality, which owns the premises, for not having a security guard in its employ.
“The club pays the water and electricity bills. It is a sports club. We now have to find monies to grill the building. The Town Council generates revenue from the ground as they host several activities. Can’t they pay for a security?’ he asked.

Foster said the groundsman leaves at 18:00 hrs and the place is left to the mercies of some footballers who do not have a structured organisation.
“They are just destroying the ground. The ground was grassless. We planted the grass; now these footballers are destroying the outfield. We suspect that some of those players are the thieves and drugs men. They are not organised,” he charged, angrily.
Foster said the Council wrote to the footballers and it seems as though they are annoyed.
He disclosed that Government, recently, built a pavilion but it is left to the vagaries of the thieves.
Foster lamented that the entire scenario is hurtful, as the club assists every organisation that approaches it.
But he maintained:”This will not stop us. The work will go on.”
Foster recalled that, having closed the offices last week Friday, he returned the following day, in company with a member of staff and a media operative and observed a youth acting suspiciously in the compound.
Suspecting nothing, he allowed the youth to leave but found out about the burglary, shortly afterwards.

After reporting the occurrence to the police, Foster said he went back to the site on Monday, when someone came to collect some clothing and, to his dismay, 90 percent of the items stored had disappeared.
He said he, then, observed that the southern and western windows on the upper flat of the two-storey building were not in place and assumed that the illegal entry was gained through the southern one.
Foster, after making some other observations concluded that people had been stealing from the club over a long time.
The Sports Club, brainchild of St. Francis Xavier Community Developers, was formed in May 1990, with the aim of promoting, as well, culture and education, as alternatives to life on the streets.
Its objective is to help youths become spiritually inclined and improve sporting activities in the township and the surrounding villages.
The first ever cricket academy in Berbice was organised by the club in August 2002, with an attendance of 72 youths, who were taught the skills of the game by Renwick Batson and Esaun Crandon.
The RHTYSC is reported to be the first such institution to have a Cricket Hall of Fame in the ‘Ancient County’.