The Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club (RHTY&SC), Guyana’s leading youth and sports organisation, would be celebrating its 30th anniversary in September, but with a reduced number of activities.
Earlier this year, the club had established a sub-committee, headed by its Secretary/CEO Hilbert Foster, to organise over 30 activities to mark the historic anniversary, but the coronavirus crisis has forced the club to shelve some of the events.
The club was formed in September, 1990, under the supervision of three-time Guyana and Commonwealth Youth Service Awardee, the St. Francis Community Developers, formerly the St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Youth Club.
The Club started with 16 members, whom were invited to a special meeting on May 15, 1990 by Public Relations Officer of St. Francis, Hilbert Foster. After several meetings over the next four months, the RHTY&SC was formally launched with Keith Foster as President, Moses Ramchanden as Secretary and Leon Wiggins as Treasurer.
Today, the club successfully hosts over 700 activities annually and is one of the top cricket clubs in Guyana. The RHTY&SC is the only youth and sports club in Guyana to have ever received a national award, The Medal of Service, and has five Guyana Cricket Board Club-of-the-Year awards, winning in 2004, 2005, 2009, 2010 and 2016.
On the cricket field, the club has won 98 different cricket tournaments and has produced a combined 105 cricketers for Berbice, Guyana and West Indies at the different levels.
Foster, who has served as Secretary/CEO for over 20 years, stated that among the activities to be hosted are a pictorial exhibition, special 30th Review Magazine, Feeding of the Poor programme, Basil Butcher Trust Fund, Republic Bank Summer Camp, Old age pensioners breakfast programme, Spelling Bee Inter Primary School Competition, One hour Television programme, assisting 30 families with special hampers, honouring the oldest RHTY&SC members and unveiling the 30th anniversary RHTY&SC all-time cricket team.
The club office would also undergo some major repairs, while several junior cricketers would receive cricket gear.
Assistant Secretary/CEO, Simon Naidu, who would spearhead the anniversary celebrations with Organising Secretary Rabindranauth Kissoonlall, stated that all plans are in place for a successful celebration, despite the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
Naidu stated that the club would observe all of the guidelines set down by National COVID-19 Task Force and if necessary, changes would be made to the list of activities.
The 22-year-old administrator also disclosed that donation of cleaning detergents would be made to the Rose Hall Town Police Outposts, Rose Hall Town Council and Rose Hall Town Fire Station as part of the club’s coronavirus response project.
