…Club receives Stihl grass cutter

THE long standing relationship between the Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club(MS) and Farfan and Mendes Ltd was renewed for the 26th successive year on Wednesday last during a simple ceremony at the company’s Providence, East Bank Demerara office.

The company and the club first established the highly successful relationship in 1997 and have expanded over the last 25 years.

Club Secretary Hilbert Foster, at the presentation, stated that the company first assisted the club in 1995 when it donated a grass cutter to assist in the preparation of the Area H Ground. It then came on board as the RHTYSC first official sponsor, in 1997, with its support of the Under-15 team. This relationship has resulted in eight major titles including six Berbice championships, 20 national under-15 players and close to 70 under-15 players for the ancient county.

Among the players produced by the club are Assad Fudadin, Royston Crandon, Dominic Rikhi, Abdel Fudadin, Shevon Marks, Mahendra Gopilall, Jermey Sandia, Junior Sinclair, Keith Simpson, Kelvon Anderson, Shemaine Campbelle, Sheneta Gopilall and Shabaki Gajnabi. Campbelle, Gajnabi, Grimmond, Crandon, Fudadin, and Anderson all went on to represent the West Indies at different levels while Rikhi has represented the United States at the international level.

The team over the last 25 years has undertaken over one thousand community-related activities under the name of the sponsorship as part of the players’ personal development programmes. Among the events/activities hosted have been medical outreaches, feeding of the poor, senior citizens breakfasts, youth information booklet, television programmes, distribution of food hampers, solar street lamps project, construction of children playfield, construction of charity kitchen, distribution of school bags, sharing out of bicycles and educational scholarships.

The team and the others in the club have also invested a lot of energy and time into a ‘say no’ and ‘say yes’ campaign which is directed to all youths in the county. Under this programme, the teams strives to get youths to say no to drugs, suicide, crime, pre-marital sex and yes to education, life, sports, culture and religion.

Apart from sponsoring the under-15 team, the company also supports a wide range of other events of the club including award ceremony, cricket academy, Christmas charity programme, annual youth magazine and Christmas Village. Foster described the company as one of the main foundation of its success and growth. The RHTYSC, in its 33-year history has won over 100 titles at all levels and has produced 120 players for Berbice, Guyana and the West Indies combined.

The Rose Hall Town Farfan and Mendes Under-15 would be led by national player Sohail Mohamed, while long-time club executive Ravindranauth Kissoonlall would serve as team manager. The assistant managers shall be Tyrone Pottaya and Keith Hicks while the coach shall be Ryan Algu.

Meanwhile, the RHTYSC also received a STIHL grass cutter in a special arrangement with their long-time sponsor. The grass cutter would assist the club members to maintain the Area H ground along with another which was donated by the Berbice Cricket Board two years ago.

Foster expressed gratitude to the company for their continued confidence in the club and for investing into the careers of promising junior players. He reassured the company that the under-15 team would continue to represent their brand with pride, passion and commitment.