C&R Webster lends helping hand to New Bowens FC
NEW BOWENS, Clarendon — Major League outfit New Bowens received a major boost when they were presented with a sponsorship package worth over $60,000 from maintenance company C&R Webster recently.
The handing-over ceremony at the club was fairly supported by the top brass of the Clarendon Football Association (CFA) and members of the community alike.
The sponsorship will come in the form of outfits, footballs and transportation to the team’s away games.
Joseph Gunter, president of the New Boys Football Club, said the support could not have come at a better time and has vowed to repay C&R Webster by winning the Captain’s Bakery-sponsored Major League. The team is currently joint leaders of the 10-team competition which started over a week ago.
“Over the years, whatever help we get would come further down in the competition, so this (sponsorship) is significant in that we are getting it at the beginning,” said Gunter.
“We normally struggle to get gear and balls… we normally have to use the old gear, so we really welcome this new set of gear at this time. The team can now settle down and play a better brand of football because with this contribution there will be more confidence and they (players) will be more comfortable,” added Gunter, who is also an INSPORTS officer for the parish.
After making his presentation to the team, Carl Webster, CEO of C&R Webster, who is also a long-time member of the community, told the Observer that his decision to assist the club was twofold.
He said that he has been watching the progress of the team overtime and thought that they needed some genuine assistance. Also, Webster believes that it was a prime opportunity for him to try and arrest some of the social ills that have been plaguing the community in recent months — such a crime.
“…The New Bowens team has been doing well and I see where the crime thing was coming into the area much more than we have ever seen, so I think coming on board would help to get the young people more focused on making a (positive) sporting impact, which we hope will reduce the crime rate,” explained Webster.
Since its advent over 12 years ago, the New Bowens Football Club has brought a myriad of success to the community.
In 2001, they won the Division Two competition then moved on to win the Division One the following year. In 2005, they won three titles; the JAMALCO Corner League, the Lloyd Plummer KO and the Major League.
However, with the community being rocked by an upsurge of violence in recent months, club officials fear that this could affect the progress of the team if attempts are not made to correct the problem.
It was against this backdrop that Michael Ricketts, president of the CFA, made an indirect plea for other members of the parish to emulate the benevolent nature of Webster.
“If we can find 20 Carl Websters in the parish, I can assure everybody that the homicide and the crime rate would be less,” Ricketts said. “This is an investment in the youths of the community and I want to use the opportunity to encourage you to make the best of this contribution… it is a gesture that must be appreciated in this time,” the CFA president added.