It started out as a way for young people in the Somerset area to be exposed to community service, while at the same time helping the needy and the elderly in the community.

This year even the St. George?s Cricket Club have joined with their Cup Match counterparts to help their own community with the distribution of food hampers.

The growth has been phenomenal with somewhere in the region of 400 hampers being distributed this year.

?The project was created by youth development groups in the Sandys community, including the Somerset majorettes, gombeys, cricket and soccer and the West End Sailboat Club,? explained Norette Simmons, one of the volunteers behind the project.

She spoke on the objectives of the food hamper campaign recently during a visit to the United Nations in New York.

Mrs. Simmons was part of a contingent of 60 that represented Bermuda at the Friends of the United Nations Award Ceremony on Human Rights Day.

Speaking to the audience, she revealed that the aim nine years ago was for the children in the Sandys community to earn and learn about the importance of community service as many schools now require students to partake in community service.

?The philosophy of the Somerset president (Colin Smith) and the executives was that we use the children in the community to get the same community service,? explained Mrs. Simmons who is originally from Hamilton Parish but has made her home in Somerset for 14 years.

Becoming involved in charitable work in Somerset was a natural occurrence for her.

?As a leader I decided to do community service for the boys and girls in the area? majorettes, now we have a netball team, football, cricket and one of the boys also sails,? she explained.

?They all earn community service and they bring in sheets from CedarBridge, Berkeley, Warwick Academy for the (Somerset Cricket Club) president to sign.?

The last of the hampers were distributed on the weekend, again with the involvement of the young children who also spent evenings after school helping to pack the hampers at the club.

Through an in-house marketing team, Global Arts Entertainment, sponsors were sought and foodstuff were either purchased or donated by various sources and included items like soup, rice, macaroni, spaghetti, fresh vegetables, beets, chow chow, cereal, cream, tea bags, tuna fish, corned beef, juice, turkey or chicken. Each box contains enough food for a whole day?s meal.

?John Barritt donated 50 cases of mango juice, BGA donated two pallets of foods and we received fresh vegetables from Amaral?s,? said Mrs. Simmons.

?We network with all the organisations to determine who will get the hampers and we also shared with the St. George?s Cricket Club and gave them 50 hampers so they could start their drive.

?We also gave to the churches in Somerset which eased the burden of delivering them.?

Distribution in the west end now stretches as far east as Warwick parish as each year more and more hampers are given away. ?We showed Neil Paynter (St. George?s Cricket Club president) how it is done and next year they can take it over,? said Mrs. Simmons.

?It?s very important that people understand that this is not just a handout. A woman came to the window at her house saying she needed a hamper. Because she didn?t have a job we directed her to the Sandys Community Centre to type out a resume, as it is free, and also to the National Training Board.?

Diane Hunt, who heads the education and youth committee at Somerset Cricket Club, sees the positive impact such charitable work has on both the community and the young people. It also puts the club in a good light.

?It?s Somerset Cricket Club?s way of giving back to the community,? said Ms Hunt, a school teacher, who noted some 80 youngsters are involved in the various youth programmes at the club and assisted with the packing of the boxes.

Also volunteering their time are Andrew Phillips, Lucinda Maybury, Madree Trew, Veronica Clarke, Norma Tankard, Mervyn (Smokey) Smith and Sherrilyn Johnson. ?As the two Cup Match clubs we wanted to work hand in hand and extend the spirit of Christmas giving to the other half of the Cup Match family,? said Ms Hunt.

She admits ?it would be nice? if other workmen?s clubs throughout the Island also got involved, and if other organisations who do a similar good deed shared their list so that families don?t receive a second hampers which could have assisted another needy family.

?People get very emotional when they receive the hampers, they are very appreciative,? said Ms Tankard, another volunteer.

Said Ms Hunt: ?We used to be a very close-knit community, but with the availability of housing at Boaz Island, a lot of people from ?outside? have moved up here.

The recent census shows that the population in Sandys parish has increased, and I guess, because there is more housing. It?s important that we keep in touch with the community.

New people moving in need to know that this is a community that they can be a part of. Norette is a prime example of what we?re trying to achieve up here.?

The club has been a beehive of activity the past few weeks as the food was packed in boxes and stored before members with cars and trucks distributed it.

?Most clubs did not allow women members and when they did allow them they were only auxilliary members,? Ms Hunt recalled. ?It was the auxilliary members, the women, who were doing all the work behind the scenes. We?re bona fide members now, it?s been that way for a while.

?A lot of people don?t know of the struggles that black clubs are going through or have been through. The black clubs started out as workmen?s clubs, where the men came to relax when they finished working.

?The clubs? only means of revenue is the bar, which to many people is a bad thing, but it is what keeps the clubs going, to fund all their programmes.?

Ms Hunt stressed that without the generosity of the various sponsors, the Somerset Cricket Club?s community hamper programme would not be possible.

?We are very appreciative of the sponsorship, without them we couldn?t do this.?