THE Guyana Police Force on Monday handed over to the Albouystown community a music band worth more than half a million dollars, as part of the Police Impact Albouystown project.

The items were gifted to the police for the community by the charitable organisation Food for the Poor Guyana Inc. The instruments will be used by the three main religious organisations in the community — Christians, Muslims and Hindus — according to the representatives of the community who received the donation.

Among the items were a complete drum set, saxophones and other components that make up a musical band.

Delivering the items on behalf of the Guyana Police Force was the ‘A’ Division Commander Assistant Police Commissioner Clifton Hicken, who said the instruments are a significant boost to the work the police have been doing with the community.

Geared to keep the young people of the community gainfully occupied, in addition to the already existing programmes the police are running in the community, the musical items will go further in denying children and teenagers the wrong models, something the Police Force is very passionate about, according to Commander Hicken.

He pointed to the cookery classes, vocational skills training, cosmetology programmes and block making and other initiatives started in the community since the police started working extensively with the community in April of last year.

Speaking on behalf of the Mercury Marching Band, which presently has existing music lessons in the community, was Joseph Vigilance of Albouystown. In outlying the focus of the band, and the potential use of the instruments to the benefit of the community, Vigilance spoke extensively on what has been happening since the music lessons started, and where the community envisages the band to be in a few years’ time.

He told the Guyana Chronicle that, at the moment, the band focuses on engaging the community’s young people who have an interest in music to play the various instruments. He said that what has been found in the months that classes have been in progress is that the young people have moved away generally from the fine art of playing instruments, and it is that art that the band is looking to revitalise among the young people in the community.

Vigilance explained also that his band has been working to bring back the essentials, such as reading and playing music fluently. This publication was told by the music instructor that because some of the children would have to now be introduced to use the new instruments, including its assembling, dissembling, care and efficient use, the classes would be split into two groups.
The older persons, who have been attending classes over the past months, will now be focusing more on the reading and playing of music, as well as learning the new instruments; new entrants to the school will be receiving training in drill marching.

The band, which is a drill marching band that takes to the streets, will now see the young entrants and the existing members providing the full complement of the band, a development long being looked forward to.

The musical instruments and training of their use will also be extended to persons who are associated with the Muslim and Hindu bodies in the community. They will be joining classes at the facility, Vigilance told the Guyana Chronicle.

By Leroy Smith

*** PHOTOS saved in Graphics Folder (Sept 8) as: Leroy Music band

TAB 1: Commander Hicken poses with two community leaders and one of the saxophones for the band

TAB 2: Junior and senior ranks pose with the instruments before they were handed over on Monday at Brickdam Police Station

TAB 3: Assistant Commissioner Clifton Hicken hands over one of the instruments to one of two community leaders