The Rotary Club of Georgetown elected a new board and committee directors at its annual dinner recently and newly elected President Aubrey Roberts pledged the Club’s continued commitment to community service.
According to a press release from Public Communications Consultants Limited, Roberts, the former president-elect, will take over as president from Deo Persaud. The following appointments were also made: Board Secretary Anna Lisa Fraser-Phang, Treasurer Harry Parmesar, President-Elect Keith Cholmondeley and Vice President Maria Van-Beek. The committee directors are Raj Alvis, Service Projects; Hugh Cholmondeley, Admi-nistration; Khalil Alli, Rotary Foundation; Ronald Burch-Smith, Membership Develop-ment; Keith Cholmondeley, Fundraising and Kit Nascimento Public Relations.
According to the release, Persaud reported a very successful year for the Georgetown Club in community service during his tenure. The club contributed $3.5M and, in collaboration with UNICEF, contributing an additional $1M, refurbished the second floor of the Cheddi Jagan Dental Centre into a specialised child-friendly dental centre. Former president Janet Jagan officially declared it open in October.
Persaud said other projects developed during the year include working in collaboration with the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security and helping establish a library in Tuschen for children up to the age of 16 as part of its Sophia Literacy Project. The club also maintained successful medical outreach programmes in Mahaica and Kuru Kuru delivering services to 230 people. It also contributed to repairs to the Diamond School for Special Children; supported the Airy Hall Women’s Development Group; donated beds to the Canaan Children’s Home and helped towards emergency surgery for Kimberly Singh who was suffering from a brain tumour. Persaud said the club also contributed towards training bursaries for four students at the Guyana School of Agriculture and assistance to the Upper Mahaica Farmers Development Committee for increased crop development.
The club also held an extremely successful dinner to mark World Understanding, featuring an address by former prime minister of the Bahamas Perry Christie, inducted seven new members during the year and begun a prosthetics project in collaboration with the Rotary Club of Barbados south for the installation of new equipment and the training of staff at the Ptolemy Reid Centre.
Meanwhile, Roberts pledged to maintain the legacy of service to the local communities, noting the Rotary International theme for 2008-2009 ‘Make dreams real.’ He committed the club to continuing its annual service projects and activities including the Senior Citizens Christmas Cheer, Interfaith Church Service, Medical Outreach Programme, Rotary Youth Leadership Awards Seminar and the Sophia Literacy Project in collaboration with the Rotaract Club of Georgetown and the Day of Sports Day for the physically challenged.
Additionally, the release said, the Rotarian of the Year was awarded to Community Service Director Alvis while Van-Beek, Burch-Smith, Alli, Hugh Cholmondeley, Peter Abdool and Kanayalal Kirpalani were given special wards for service.
