Holy Family Primary’s poignant message against underage gambling

It was a clean sweep – that unquestionably keeps stirring interest and intrigue over the outstanding consecutive victories of Holy Family Primary School in the Underage Gambling Prevention Jingle Competition staged by the Betting Gaming and Lotteries Commission (BGLC) in collaboration with Rise Life Management Services.

Victory in the inaugural competition in 2022 through entrant Malique Brown, a successful defence of the title by Monnoya Barrett in 2023, and remaining the top team in 2024 with Torelle Campbell placing first, Tatiana Turner second, and Cheniqua Christie fourth at the recent awards ceremony at the Institute of Jamaica all becomes more impactful on realising that the man writing all these jingles is not the school’s music teacher.

Lawayne Thomas is a teacher at Holy Family for the last eight years, in mathematics, language arts, social studies and science.

It is interesting to learn that the 32-year-old Lawayne, from the age of five, had a love for melodies and though without formal training, taught himself to play the keyboard some five years ago. He now plays at church and is practising to advance himself.

“I have always been writing songs and jingles for fun,” he says, “and I have been writing jingles for various school events. Entering the first competition all started when I was given the competition flier by the school’s guidance councilor.

“At that time, I was practising a maths song with Malique Brown, and I knew he had the talent, so we wrote the jingle together and recorded it the next day at the school. I was confident we were going to win because the chorus was quite catchy. That’s the secret – catchy melody and words, and the jingle, the song, must have feeling.”

He believes that he has an ear for the right voices, and selecting Monnoya Barret the next year wasn’t difficult. “She has a good voice ... and is quite a DJ,” he remarked.

More students were to express an interest in entering last year’s competition, and fortunately, three entries were allowed this time. Torelle Campbell, who was first to practise, offered no surprises, he said, in winning the competition. “I felt good about the prospects of all three,” he commented, “but was quite taken with Tatiana placing second and Cheniqua, fourth. I was so pleased.”

“I am never nervous at all,” says 11-year-old Torelle, “and I love to sing from I am nine years old. Mr Thomas is easy to work with and is very determined.” Tatiana thinks that his songs are inspiring, and Cheniqua says he encourages everybody and is very motivating.

All three children reside in Central Kingston and are quite concerned about underage gambling. “It must be stopped,” Torelle says, “and more adult supervision is needed.” “It’s not good,” Tatiana says, “and breaks down families and friends. More fun games need to be promoted for children,” with Cheniqua pressing home this very point.

The gregarious Lawayne Thomas responds quite sternly. “It’s addictive, especially for the young. More activities like the jingle competition and other attractions for the young will go a long way.”

Richard Henry, programme manager of Rise Life Management Services, says that the jingle competition enables greater reach to all Jamaican youth islandwide. “Because of the modality,” he remarked, “it has the effect of creating greater interest from the youth within this age group, especially on all media platforms.”

‘The competition,” he continued, “is seen as a major tool in tackling underage gambling in Jamaica.”

Wendy Robertson, corporate affairs and communication manager of the BGLC, revealed that the winning jingles from the competition are transformed into educational animations. “These also provide us,” she said, “with another set of critical resources which is shared on social medias and used at workshops and presentations.”

The theme of the 2024 competition was “Gambling, Gambling! ... Dat A Nuh Fi You!” The first lines of Torelle Campbell’s winning entry remain thought provoking:

‘Gambling, gambling, that a nuh fi you

Cause yuh too young fi di gambling youth

Yuh brain too young, yuh nuh reach eighteen

And di gambling thing will cause pure things

Yuh get addicted yuh brain twisted

Yuh brain crumble like a biscuit

A one life yuh have nuh badda risk it ...’