RHTY&SC honours top LCSS student with Claudette Foster Memorial Award

…donates cycles to promising young cricketers

The Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club (RHTY&SC) on Thursday last unveiled its latest award scheme when it honoured Nicholas Ishak as the top student for 2024.
The club honoured Ishak with the Claudette Foster Memorial Award for being the Valedictorian of the Lower Corentyne Secondary School (LCSS) graduation ceremony, which was held at the school. Club Secretary Hilbert Foster, the youngest son of the late Claudette Foster, handed over the award to a delighted Ishak after delivering the charge to the graduates of the school.
Foster, the former President of the Berbice Cricket Board (BCB), urged the attentive students to look for avenues to further their education especially as entry to the University of Guyana is now free. The RHTY&SC Secretary called on the graduating class to always seek ways to assist their former school and to always remember the teachers who assisted them to achieve their dream. He spoke of the importance of personal discipline, hard work and religion in their daily lives.

Foster stated that Guyana was undergoing a rapid period of development and he urged the students to be a part of it. He disclosed that the RHTY&SC Pepsi Under 19 and NAMILCO First-Division teams would sponsor the award over the next five years in honour of his mom, who died in 2022 at the age of 81. She was the mother of three sons – Hilbert, a well-known cricket administrator; Alex, President of the award-winning St Francis Community Developers and Keith, a businessman and another former President of the Berbice Cricket Board. Ishak received a very large trophy and a cash prize.
Headmaster of the LCSS, Karl Vanier expressed thanks to the club for sponsoring the award while noting that the RHTY&SC has always been a friend of the school. The club in the period 1990 to 1992 had led a massive restoration project at the school and currently hosts a tribute programme for outstanding teachers and students with the support of former student Dropattie Ramsammy of the United States.
Meanwhile, the club also presented three bicycles worth a combined $70,000 to three of its members under the Say Yes to Education programme. The three Under-17 cricketers that benefited are Nicholas Cameron, Akeel Fraser and Anthony Saheed. The cycles were purchased with funding from former member Terrence Madramootoo, a former Berbice inter-county junior player.
RHTY&SC Cricket Manager Robby Kissoonlall stated that the main reason for the assistance was to make it easier for the players to attend school and cricket practice. He expressed gratitude to Madramootoo for his assistance to the club. The club, since 2000, has assisted hundreds of youths with cycles across the Ancient County including 109 club members. The club also supported Cameron in paying his exam fees to write six subjects at the 2025 Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) exams.