The Somerset community continues to invest in its young people with Solomon Burrows, Ember Butterfield and Kayla Corday the latest recipients of the Clyde Best Education Award.

Burrows, a talented footballer and cricketer, is studying Music Engineering and Technology at Manchester College in England while Butterfield and Corday — the sister of Trojans footballer and cricketer Justin Corday — are at school in Florida.

Burrows has represented the Bermuda Under-17 football team and the Under-17 and Under-20 cricket teams.

Last summer he scored a century in the Western Counties for Willow Cuts, the youngest player to do so in the competition.

Butterfield is on a football scholarship at Monteverde Academy where she is entering her final year as an honour student with a GPA of 3.8, pursuing Child Psychology as a career path. She has played for the Bermuda Under-15, Under-17 and Under-20 teams.

Corday is attending St Leo University in the Programme for the Advancement of Learning in Florida and is pursuing a PhD in Psychology. She assists at Somersfield Academy during breaks from school and is a member of Somerset Cricket Club’s youth programme.

Supporting young people in the community is the aim of the scholarship.

The three members of the committee, chairperson Dianne Hunt, Dr Radell Tankard and Carlton Best, are all educators who recognise the importance of education.

“We have a number of young people in England and the States and they are all following career paths that are not only going to be beneficial to our community in Sandys but the whole of Bermuda,” Hunt said. “One of the criteria is they have to have been a part of the [Somerset youth] programme.

“This is the third year and so far we’ve had 12 recipients. We stress education first with sport being the second part of it.”

Tankard added: “We stress academics at the club and have tried to maintain the tradition of the Randy Hortons, Keith Tuckers, Donnie Simmons’s and Lew Simmons’s of receiving education through sports.

“We don’t have coaches coming in like years ago to recruit young people so our effort is to put scholarships together to maintain the tradition of sending athletes overseas to get an education.

“Another part of the criteria is they have to be committed to coming back to help out in the community,” Hunt said.

“That’s important because the biggest problem we face is the breakdown of the communities.”

Soloman Burrows is Stephen Burrows’s second son to be a recipient of the award, following his brother Ras Stafari, a Somerset footballer, who was one of the first recipients. He is also studying in Manchester, at Manchester University. Their youngest brother, Simeon Burrows, 15, plays for the Manchester United foundation team.

“As an athlete I see Solomon striving to go as far as he possibly can, in the meantime using his athleticism to enable him to get an education, which will eventually be able to serve him and serve his community,” Burrows said. “He’s playing cricket at South Manchester Cricket Club. We’re very much grateful for the assistance from the Clyde Best Scholarship programme.”