Osbourne Bodden, Minister of Community Affairs, Youth and Sports
(CNS): With local teenagers facing numerous challenges and often getting a bad reputation for being troublesome, the minister responsible for youth is urging the community to nominate deserving young people for the latest round of the “Proud of Them” campaign. An initiative that puts young people at the heart of a billboard campaign featuring their achievements, it was launched originally by the previous minister but has been enthusiastically embraced and expanded by Osbourne Bodden, who has added a small stipend for the winners.
The programme seeks to publicly commend young people who may get overlooked. Bodden said that despite the bad publicity that sometimes surrounding young people, there was no shortage in Cayman of “mature, focused, bright young men and women” who were working hard and overcoming the hurdles and challenges, filling their time with positive activities.
Encouraging everyone to help young people make most of the opportunities on offer, he called for nominations at a press briefing to launch the latest round on Tuesday. The programme publicly applauds young people for a diverse range of achievements and puts their faces on boards, which are posted around the islands.
“Don’t leave the nomination for someone else. If you think that someone is deserving, then nominated them,” the minister said. “Too many won’t hurt.”
The minister said the quality of nominations in the previous rounds had been high and previous receipts remain in the spotlight as role models and are emerging as ambassadors for Cayman. Now, Bodden said, he was looking forward to the round of new faces.
“There are not enough positive stories about young people,” he added, as he urged the community to recognize those who deserved it.
Joel Francis, the assistant chief officer in the ministry, said nominees must be aged between 10 and 25 and have excelled or achieved exceptional attainment in either academics, careers, sports, culture, business or in community services where they have volunteered and achieved a significant contribution as a result. Nominations are open until 16 January, with a goal of evaluating the winners and getting the billboards up by February.
People are asked to use the electronic nomination process via forms posted on the ministry website www.mcays.ky. Francis said people nominating should include supporting references and documentation for the achievements of the youngsters they are nominating where appropriate.
He also said that previous nominees that did not make the billboards in the previous campaigns will be examined again as well, so anyone who nominated young people in the past who were not awarded should send in any further information to support those previous nominations to boost their chances this time around.
Ossie your bigotry may have been swept under the carpet by the ineffective Alden but it is has not been forgotten.
Could we just spend the money we waste on this and heroes day on better educations so we will actually have a future to celebrate?
Wotes need to be bought.
Given some of the recent press coverage, perhaps we should have a “disgusted with them” campaign to dis-associate ourselves from some people.
But in Eden vs Ossie it would be a tough battle. Perhaps if they split the awards into “racially-based bigotry” and “religious bigotry” then it would be better.
F$@#ing Driftwood need not apply
I wish there was a “disappointed in them campaign”
Just wait until we institute or own ban on Muslims from entering the country…
Will it extend to “Hinduists, Voodooist and Satanists” to quote the Speaker of the House?
No this man, please. How in the world he will be in charge of selecting winners after he had disgraced himself. This is a total absurd.
I would like to nominate the youth on the unlicensed Kawasaki dirt bike for going the entire length of the by-pass on one wheel!
Surely the children of paper Caymanians should be praised for standing strong despite the racist attitudes exhibited towards their families by certain politicians.