Mason Hall PYC motivated after Tobago Day award

MASON Hall Police Youth Club PRO Akiea Gunn said club-members feel motivated to expand on their good work, after being recognised at the annual Tobago Day Awards earlier this month.

The club, which was founded 24 years ago, received an award for community service.

Gunn said, "Being recognised by your island at the highest level, for your contribution towards youth and community development is always a special honour.

"This award is a great motivation for the members – and if we were recognised as great before, we will be extraordinary going forward."

Gunn said the club's members are responsible for the success.

"We have a fantastic team and we pride ourselves in being creative and our projects making a meaningful impact.”

Gunn also spoke about the club’s major achievements for the year.

“While the award is the pinnacle, we were really proud of the impact our Save the Youths project made. The initiative had several components which involved a walk against crime through Scarborough, education posters and radio ads, also social-media videos, which received thousands of likes.

“It also involved a primary-schools project among four schools, where they were required to be creative in promoting crime prevention and alternatives to the entire school population for a one-month period, in several judging areas, which was won by Mt St George Methodist."

She said sport is also a big part of the club's activities.

“The third edition of our Juvenile Track Classic attracted 14 clubs from Trinidad and remains the only national athletic club event that provides incentives for athletes, coaches and clubs.

“We also took the youth members on a youth exchange program to Curacao during the month of August.”

Leader of the club Dexter Edwards said he was surprised by the recognition.

"It took a while for the news to sink in – it was definitely a shock.

"We were not expecting any award, I still do not know who nominated us.”

Edwards who started the club, gave a brief history of the organisation.

“It was difficult at first,” he said. “Our initial membership was recruited from the primary school, but it was tough getting projects done. The belief at that time was that nothing doesn’t survive in the village.

“At first, I literally had to do 75 per cent of projects for it to get done, but over time confidence started to grow and it became easy.”

Asked about the high point in the club’s history, Edwards said, “In over 20 years, it is hard to pick a stand-out moment, but our initiatives have crossed sports, culture, education, spiritual, environment and youth-exchange programmes.”

In terms of sport, he said he feels especially proud “being the first football team from the community to gain promotion to the Tobago Football Association first division."

The Mason Hall community football league, he said, attracted teams from throughout the island, "and raised the bar in terms of marketing, structure and prizes offered during its tenure."

He said the Plus Size Divas queen pageant was a major cultural attraction.

“And I cannot forget overcoming several challenges to embark on our first youth-exchange programme to Grenada.”

What drives the club forward?

"For me, I think passion, vision and being creative is a must. Providing motivation and evolving with time is also vital, and once you can successfully navigate various personalities, it becomes easy.”

On the club’s plans for next year Edwards said, “God spare life, we will let our actions do the talking.”