Last Monday morning, November 22, 2021, Israel Cumberbatch of the St Vincent Grammar School became the recipient of a scholarship from a group known as Boobies Boys. The scholarship amounts to EC$1,200.00 annually, and would be for his tenure at the St Vincent Grammar School.

According to Minister of Education Curtis King who presented the scholarship to Cumberbatch at the school, currently two students are recipients of scholarships from the Boobies Boys, namely Israel Cumberbatch and Marcus Adams.

He explained that the group came to being when most in a number of young men who in the 1970s and 1980s lived in the Upper Belair area migrated to North America, the Caribbean, and Europe.

“Most of the time the guys use to lime on a corner in top Gomea called Boobies Corner. There was a shopkeeper near the corner and she would refer to them as Boobies Boys, and she would say ‘here comes the Boobies Boys’, so the name stuck,” King explained.

He said that those young men diligently practiced their Christian faith, have remained in touch with each other, and a few years ago, they all came together for a reunion celebrating the group’s fiftieth anniversary.

Education Minister King, pointed out that during the get together, “a number of initiatives were agreed upon; one of these was to provide a scholarship to a secondary school student. That scholarship scheme was instituted four years ago. At the time it was felt that one scholarship would be sufficient.”

However since the granting of the first scholarship, the group has been established as a non-profit organization, and decided to increase the number of scholarships to two.

King’s connection came through as he “…use to hang out with them, and has been part of the group for as long as I could remember.”

Although he is not the local point person for the Group, King is part of a group of men who reside in St. Vincent and the Grenadines who maintain connection with the group and organizes any local activities on the group’s behalf.