Hamden Rovers | Charity founded by Jamaicans in Connecticut wants to create legacies that last after building barber shop at Sunbeam Boys Home

Each week they will gather for a game of scrimmage at the end of which they spend a few hours talking up ideas about how they could serve the local community of Hamden and their native homeland of Jamaica.

From these discussions among like-minded individuals, the Hamden Rovers Football Club came into being. But since its conception, it has quickly morphed into an incorporated charitable body, delivering yeoman’s service to the community. And just as they had envisaged, the group wants to export their benevolence to the land of their birth.

Recently the Sunbeam Boys Home had the distinction of being the first organization in Jamaica to benefit from the kind hearts at Hamden Rovers Inc., as the group invested in excess of J$600,000 to build a “first-rate” barber saloon at the care home based at Gutters, three miles east of Old Harbour.

• Connecticut-based Hamden Rovers builds ‘first-rate’ barber shop at Sunbeam Boys Home

The group’s work in Hamden is quite telling and awe-inspiring and has attracted other nationals to its fold like St Lucian native Beverley Felix and Nneanata Amaechi of Nigeria.

Felix was impressed by the work and commitment of the group and is now an active member of a team involving some 30 individuals. “There is always gonna be someone that is less fortunate than you are and what better way to show humanity than charity,” said the St Lucian. “I’m looking forward to what’s planned for the future and I’m just very excited to be on board.”

Amaechi chimed in: “This club is leaving a legacy for those individuals that will outlive us.”

Staging fundraisers is a core part of what the team at Hamden Rovers does, enabling them to support Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services, annual Labour Day community projects, free sports and education summer camps for low-income families and back-to-school drives. 

One of its flagship programme – a free soccer camp in the summer –  afford kids the opportunity to not only learn the tenets of the game, but also build rockets and acquire basic money management skills.

“Our main goal is to establish a permanent home for the club to operate in a more sustained way,” club president Robert Tullonge told Old Harbour News in an interview with the group’s key decision makers.

Since joining forces with Sunbeam Boys Home, the wards have been benefiting from online mentorship workshops geared towards social and economic empowerment of each individual.

The group was touched by the story of the boy’s home, said Leroy Francis, vice president, who lauded the work of Desmond Whitley, general manager of Sunbeam Boys Home.

“We know everybody will not choose to become a barber but one or two might come out years later and become a professional barber and help themselves,” said Francis, who grew up in the tough inner-city community of Tivoli Gardens.

“I wish that youth being assisted through charity will take note of how much people want to help them and help Jamaica,” he added. “We wish we can have more people who can try to do the same thing that we are doing to educate them a little better.”

Tullonge, who immigrated to The Constitution State age 17, is among those who plans to one day retire in Jamaica. But their collective dream is to leave lasting legacies behind that will outlive them.

“Whether domestic, whether international, we want to find an outlet that is deserving of our help,” Tullonge said.

“We are fully aware that people come and go. With us we recognize that we are setting the ground work and our hope is that what we are doing will inspire others to come on board and continue where we may pause and hand over the baton to another generation.”

Gregory Hamilton, who wears the title of the club’s disciplinary officer, said the organisation aims to spread its wings to other Caribbean nations and beyond.
Its charitable deeds, they hope, will help to reverse some of negative images coming out of Jamaica, particularly narratives of crime and violence.

Many members like Francis believe that those in the position of power can do more “to open doors for more Jamaicans abroad to help people back home” by eliminating some of the bureaucracy.

“In terms of the crime down there… from our point of view up here, it really looks bad,” said Donovan Lofters, while pointing to the vast disparity in murders between Jamaica and New York City.  

But Tullonge urges Jamaicans overseas to be unwavering in their support of their beloved tropical island nation. 

“If I have done well for others I can lie down content,” he said. “If 12 of us can come together and donate $600,000 to build a little barber shop, then imagine how much people in the diaspora can take on a little initiative and help where help is needed.”