Newly-appointed Chief Commissioner of the Scout Association of Guyana Yonnick David sees a lot of potential and employment opportunities for young people in the country to hone their skills in making Guyana a world-class business and tourism destination. He is doing his bit to lift customer service where the task is huge.
“At the end of the day, I am trying to do as much as I can to promote Guyana, whether it is through entertainment, eco-tourism, nature or adventure tourism. I would like to see high standards in the entertainment and local tourism sectors and I’ll do my bit. I’ll do my lot to positively impact the youths of Guyana,” the entertainment and tourism promoter/ entrepreneur told Stabroek Weekend in a recent interview.
After he left high school, David, now 37 years old, moved to the USA to pursue tertiary studies but shelved them to focus on work before returning to Guyana in 2015.
On his return to Guyana, he went back to St Margaret’s Primary Scout Group to volunteer as an adult leader. “I was a cub scout, a scout and a venture scout at St Margaret’s. Scouting is where I put all my volunteer time. It is a lot of time actually serving at the national level,” he noted.
In 2018, he was appointed an assistant district commissioner. In 2021, he was appointed deputy chief commissioner in charge of programmes. Last week, he was appointed chief commissioner.
He was seven years old when he joined St Margaret’s Primary Scouts Club as a cub scout and was among the first batch of scouts at the school. After the cubs aged out at 11, the club expanded to include the scouts (now known as explorer scouts between the ages of 11 to 15 years). At that time, the association started accepting girls as scouts.
“We were also the first batch to include girls. My scouting experience was amazing. I was a reserved child for the most part growing up. The scouting movement taught me how to express myself, gave me social skills, discipline and generally to open up,” he said.
When he moved to the US at 17, he said, “a lot of the skills I learned from scouting helped me along. Scouting was extremely important in my life. It was one of the reasons why, once I returned to Guyana, I volunteered some of my time with my scout group and the association. The first Saturday I spent in the country after my return, I attended our club’s meeting.”
One of his immediate assignments as chief commissioner is to modernise some of the activities.
“This August holidays we will host a STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics] and robotics camp for scouts. We just signed a memorandum of understanding with a Guyanese diaspora group of robotics and STEM teachers out of the USA. They will come to work with over 100 scouts from across the country,” he said.
In the past, he noted, a lot of activities were centred on camping and the outdoors. “We will not get rid of the fun in the outdoors but we will incorporate as much as we can. We will continue and enhance what already exists,” he stated. We didn’t have all the technology available to us in the past like now. It is my belief we can still teach the scout methods using the technology now available. We can still teach discipline, teamwork and we can still empower young people using all the modern tools.”
Entrepreneurship
David was born in Georgetown and obtained his primary and secondary education at St Margaret’s Primary and Mae’s Secondary. After Mae’s he moved to the USA and started a degree in urban planning at Medgar Evers College. Not satisfied with what he was doing, he moved to Hunter’s College to do liberal arts.
“I graduated from high school at about 16 years and migrated when I was 17 going into 18. I wasn’t certain what I wanted to do or what I should be,” he said.
While attending Hunter’s College, David worked at John F Kennedy Airport for a company that was in charge of Swiss Air. When Swiss Air was bought by Lufthansa, David undertook training with Lufthansa and worked with the German airline for several years.
“I decided to put a pause on school and focus on work and entrepreneurship. While I was working full time at Lufthansa I was doing events planning. I was pretty much a party promoter. It was making good money and so I left the airline. From promoting events I started managing a nightclub called HK Lounge on 39th and Ninth streets in Manhattan. I was given a small ownership part in the club as an equity stake. At this point I was putting all my efforts into doing business. It was around that time my love for entrepreneurship began to grow. I was 25 years,” he revealed.
David and another owner of the night club then started an emergency ice delivery service. “We had the ice machine for the club and during the week when the club was closed we decided to sell the excess ice,” he related.
The owners of the night club then opened an arts studio, AM Studio, in a space in the building they occupied. It was a place where independent artists staged shows. The studio evolved into a television studio so that companies like VH 1 and MTV rented it for filming.
“The Real Housewives of New York City used our studio to film. A lot of music shows were filmed there. Some of the most famous musical artists passing through our studios were Wyclef, rapper T.I., DJ MV and Joe Santana. We had most of the celebrities, today’s young people could think about. They were there, during the time we were doing the art gallery, the nightclub. We threw a lot of parties. We were quite popular in New York,” he said.
Returning home
David returned to Guyana in April 2015 for his grandmother’s 80th birthday. It was the first time he had returned after being away for seven years.
“A lot had changed since I’d left. By then I was a more seasoned entrepreneur. I had a good eye for business and I saw lots of opportunities. I decided to return home on a permanent basis. I came back on December 24, 2015 in time for my granddad’s birthday, Christmas Day,” he said.
Once he returned he was not sure about the specific area he wanted to venture into. “I had to explore, research a bit. He went to the University of Guyana and in 2020 he obtained a bachelor’s degree in international relations.
“While at UG I started a company, Medical Diagnostic Supplies, which paid my tuition and bills while in university. I supplied private and public hospitals with medical supplies across the country,” he related.
He attended the 34th OAS Model Assembly in Costa Rica in 2019 and took part in the Harvard University’s UN Latin American and Caribbean Conference held in Mexico, in January 2020. He was also part of the Fourth Youth Parliament in Guyana in 2018. He gave a number of talks on entrepreneurship through UG’s School of Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation, including one on a model for a waste to energy plant as an alternative to land filling.
Guyana Rum Festival
As founder of the Guyana Rum Festival, David said, his team has created a learning experience around different types of rum, distillation, tasting and its origins in the sugar cane industry.
“Once we take that journey back to sugar cane, we can then understand and appreciate more of our culture and our makeup. Many of us are here because our ancestors were brought here to develop the sugar industry,” he noted. “What I wanted to do was create an event to enjoy the Guyanese culture and socialise while learning about the world class product we produce.”
Noting that rum is a very taboo product, he said, “It is a big contributor to the economy. I thought it was important we create an educational festival around it. It is not only about consumption but about history and culture, for medicinal purposes. You can sample the rums during the two-day festival.”
Steel pan music, live performances by Guyanese artistes and a dinner at Herdmanston Lodge are also part of the event. The dinner menu includes food and sauces infused with rum and at the end of the dinner all guests receive a piece of black cake in which rum is a main ingredient.
The inaugural rum festival, held at Everest Cricket Ground, was in February 2020. This year’s rum festival, also at Everest, opened yesterday and ends today. Over 60 people gained employment during this festival.
“There was no physical one in 2021 because of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown. In 2021, one was held virtually. We had participants from Scotland and England. In 2022, we were featured in the Caymanian Times, Travel Noire, a digital media company serving millennials of the African Diaspora, and the Caribbean Loop. As soon as we came out of the lockdown we held a rum festival in 2022,” he said.
David started a mix-off competition among bartenders. “A lot of bartenders were out of work during the pandemic. So we gave them an opportunity to compete in mixology and win cash prizes. It was a chance for them to socialise and to showcase their talents in the bartending arena and for tourism. Obviously bartenders are social creatures,” e said.
In 2021 David started the Secret Garden Brunch that catered for 400 guests. “It was the first sanctioned privately-held public event coming out of Covid-19. We received all our permits. Guests submitted their vaccination booklets. We built a model that would possibly work for Guyana if that was ever to be the situation ongoing. It was a successful event. The brunch last year catered for 800 people. It was held at the Scouts Association ground in Woolford Avenue, Thomas Lands. Part of the proceeds is donated to the association,” he said.
David also has a marketing company, Seven Marketing Media, which he said is “currently producing a documentary on freshwater fishing as a tourism product for Guyana. Last year we took the British High Commissioner into the jungle to do some fishing and to learn about life in the interior. We drove from Georgetown to Kurupukari Crossing and then we went by boat south on the Essequibo River to almost the centre of Guyana just a day away from Apoteri.”
One of his objectives of the documentary is to highlight the benefits of sustainable rainforests, the importance of conservation in the wake of climate change and the importance of catch and release fishing.
“People who live in the area live off the rivers and the forests. Sometimes we as coastlanders go into those areas and overharvest. We can enjoy what Guyana has to offer but we have to respect those spaces,” he stressed.
Upgrading standards
“This year we did bartender training with a hospitality school from the BVI called Riddim Up Bartending School. We were able to get a lecturer, a diaspora Guyanese to conduct the five-day training activity. He spent two of those five days covering customer service and cleanliness,” David revealed. “If Guyana really wants to be a tourism destination, we have to definitely work on our customer service and train staff to be customer-friendly. We are opening up and the service in many places leaves a lot to be desired. It’s not the experience you want people to have when they come to Guyana. I integrate training aspects into my programmes. I’m hoping someone will take this and run with it. The GTA has been doing a lot of training as well. Maybe there is need for a nationwide campaign.”
David is also a part of the Region Four Tourism Committee, through which he hopes to encourage some training in customer service.
Over the years David has looked up to a few different people. “A business model for me was Jay-Z and the rapper, P Diddy. I have always looked up to Dr Cheddi Jagan. Because of the scouting I had an understanding for empathy and love of country. Observing Dr Jagan, I thought he truly cared about people and about Guyana. His grandchildren and great nephews, we grew up together. I was pretty close to the family,” he stated.
“My scout leaders Zaida Joaquim, Enoch Gaskin and Golda Gaskin, my main scout leaders growing up, played a huge role in who I am as a person today. My mother was a big person I looked up to.”
