How can you unleash the philanthropic impulses of the Bajan community in the United States so as to maximise benefits to Barbados’ youth at home and abroad?
The Young Barbadian Professionals Society (YBPS), an organisation founded almost a decade ago in the New York Metropolitan area by upwardly mobile and highly motivated sons and daughters of the soil, knows the answer.
“Our mission is to harness the intellectual capital of our members and to further the positive transformation of the global Barbadian community. We achieve our goal by enabling many young people to further their education and acquire skills that would push them forward and improve their lives,” said V. Renee Cutting, a co-founder and leader of the society, who is the chief development officer of Horizon’s National, an organisation with headquarters in Connecticut.
The fruits of the society’s collective spirit and action can be seen in its results. Between 2008 and last year, the organisation awarded more than US$40 000 in scholarships to Barbadian and Caribbean students who are pursuing degrees in the United States, at the University of the West Indies and the Barbados Community College. This year it plans to award US$10 000 in additional scholarships and it is urging Barbadians and other West Indians to apply online (YBPSINTL.org).
“The criteria for eligibility included a requirement that the applicants are of Barbadian or Caribbean heritage and that they have been accepted into college degree programmes,” said Cutting. “We have also given book awards, provided educational supplies to students and engaged the young people in mentoring activities to provide them with information and guidance.”
YBPS has also established an Endowment Fund to help finance the scholarships and other initiatives.
Just last week the society sponsored its annual “Sunday Lunch And Lime,” a “roast and a toast” event that honoured a dozen Barbadian men who “have made significant contributions” to Barbados and the Bajan community.
Held at Dumbo’s Loft on Water Street in Brooklyn, the event also served as a fundraiser.
Among the honorees were Lemuel Brewster, director of public relations, financial and risk at Thomson Reuter; Miguel Edgehill, president of the Barbadian-American Charitable Organisation of New Jersey; Randy Brathwaite, president of the Council of Barbadian Organisations in New York; Basyl Barrow, a travel industry specialist.
Other honorees included Walter Edey, a retired New York city public school teacher; Richard Gatsby, assistant principal of the Ronald Edmonds Learning Centre in Brooklyn; Adrian Myles, a chef and operator of Café-Y in Connecticut, who is also a public health inspector for the City of Hartford; Rommel Mark Cutting, a home improvement contractor; Hallam Sargeant, a senior human resources manager at Proctor & Gamble.
Also honoured were Andrea Padmore, Barbados’ consul; Lennox Price, Barbados’ outgoing Consul-General and Tony Best, whom Cutting described as “a journalist and media manager in Barbados and the United States for more than half of a century”.