The Wa­ter­loo Po­lice Youth Club (WPYC) cel­e­brat­ed East­er with a high­ly suc­cess­ful, first-ever fam­i­ly day and sport­ing ex­trav­a­gan­za, which fea­tured sev­er­al fun ac­tiv­i­ties for scores of chil­dren from the com­mu­ni­ty. The event was held at the Bank Vil­lage Sport­ing Fa­cil­i­ty in Cara­pichaima on March 28.

From tod­dlers to teenagers, the youths en­gaged in friend­ly com­pe­ti­tion in an East­er bon­net pa­rade, kite-fly­ing, mu­si­cal chairs and an East­er egg hunt.

WPYC pres­i­dent Nicholas Ram­sun­dar said the club has been in ex­is­tence for 22 years but was of­fi­cial­ly reg­is­tered with­in the na­tion­al youth club sys­tem of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) in 2018.

“We have a ded­i­cat­ed team of po­lice of­fi­cers and par­ents who spear­head the wide-rang­ing ac­tiv­i­ties of the club. They lit­er­al­ly work night and day to de­vel­op mean­ing­ful pro­grammes for the young­sters through­out the year. How­ev­er, while we do get some fi­nan­cial and oth­er sup­port from civic-mind­ed cit­i­zens, there is a cry­ing need for greater fund­ing from the pri­vate sec­tor to ex­pand our youth-de­vel­op­ment pro­grammes,” Ram­sun­der point­ed out.

Cpl. Fred­er­ick Cum­ber­batch, who is at­tached to the Com­mu­ni­ty Polic­ing Unit of the Cou­va Po­lice Sta­tion and head of the TTPS team at the Wa­ter­loo Po­lice Youth Club, ex­plained that since Wa­ter­loo was not a high-in­come com­mu­ni­ty and al­so not home to large cor­po­rate en­ti­ties, the club’s ad­min­is­tra­tion is ap­peal­ing to cor­po­rate en­ti­ties out­side the Wa­ter­loo catch­ment area to come on board to as­sist in fund­ing ac­tiv­i­ties, in fi­nan­cial con­tri­bu­tions or oth­er as­sis­tance.

“Our main goals as a po­lice youth club are to pro­vide a safe en­vi­ron­ment for the chil­dren in the com­mu­ni­ty, nur­ture well-round­ed youths, in­spire them to pur­sue whole­some ac­tiv­i­ties that lead them away from a life of crime, build­ing pos­i­tive char­ac­ters, en­hanc­ing their ed­u­ca­tion­al, sport­ing and cul­tur­al ca­pa­bil­i­ties, in­still­ing na­tion­al­ism and pa­tri­o­tism, there­by en­sur­ing they de­vel­op in­to the best cit­i­zens they can be,” Cum­ber­batch said.

He was high in praise of Sr Supt Rudolph Bhag­wan­deen, who is in charge of the TTPS Cen­tral Di­vi­sion, for his guid­ance and men­tor­ship in de­vel­op­ing the po­lice youth club sys­tem in sev­er­al com­mu­ni­ties through­out the re­gion. He made spe­cial men­tion of club ex­ec­u­tive mem­ber Mar­garet Ram­raj for her tire­less ef­forts in or­gan­is­ing the East­er Ex­trav­a­gan­za at short no­tice and al­so thanked com­mu­ni­ty ac­tivists Ke­ri­na Lau­rie, Ker­ron Gill and Ernest Es­delle for their in­puts as well as the par­ents for their full sup­port.

“I take great plea­sure in as­sist­ing to what­ev­er wor­thy cause I can in the cen­tral re­gion where I live. I was de­light­ed to be part of this project to bring some fun and en­joy­ment to these youths as they cel­e­brate East­er in their own spe­cial way,” Gill ex­plained.

Next on the agen­da for the WPYC is a two-week sum­mer camp dur­ing the Ju­ly/Au­gust school hol­i­days. Any­one will­ing to as­sist the club in this wide-rang­ing ven­ture can con­tact Cpl Comber­batch at 795-8192.

Re­sults of WPYC East­er Ex­trav­a­gan­za events:

East­er Bon­net Pa­rade

1 - Ris­sa Boodoo

2 - Ado­ra D Sil­va

3 - Athena Da Sil­va

Mu­si­cal Chairs 1

1 - Yu­lian­na Ram­sun­dar

2 - El­leyse Reg­is

Mu­si­cal Chairs 2

1 - Ri­han­na Su­ru­jbal­ly

2 - Kamya Montoute

East­er Egg Hunt

1 - Ethan Boodoo

2 - Ado­ra Boodoo

Kite Fly­ing

1 - Jahziel Pelchi­er

2 - Richard Ra­houl Seep­er­sad.