As part of their mandate to support youth development through sports, Scotiabank has committed approximately $3.515m in sponsorships to two sporting initiatives — netball and cycling — it was announced at the Jamaica Conference Centre yesterday.

Sunshine Girl Malysha Kelly was adopted for $1m through Netball Jamaica’s (NJ) ‘Adopt a Player’ programme in an effort to raise funds for the team to attend the World Cup in Sydney, Australia, in August. NJ also received an addition $1.25m towards their youth developmental programmes, which includes the Under-14 and Under-16 squads, and the junior umpires programme.

National cyclist Marloe Rodman was given sponsorship valued at $1.265m in his bid to qualify for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

“Through partnerships like these we have made a difference in the lives of many Jamaican youth, and plan is to continue doing so. We are happy to be able to award these two young people; Maylasha (Kelly) and Marloe (Rodman), and assist them achieve their dream of representing their country at international sporting events,” said Monique Todd, Scotiabank’s vice-president of marketing, public and corporate affairs.

Todd said that sponsoring Kelly was an easy decision for her company.

“Malysha has inadvertently been aligned with Scotiabank all throughout the period of our sponsorship. Initially she was a member of the Under-16 squad. Malysha subsequently rose through the ranks, to play and captain the Sunshine Girls, and has, since September last year, been on work experience in our marketing department, and so we are proud and happy to be able to be her sponsor,” Todd said.

She also said that sponsoring Rodman was never in doubt.

“Our aim is to support the youth through sport and so sponsoring cycling fit right into our plans. We have orchestrated cycling workshops for inner-city kids and today (yesterday) we take it to a new level, as we ride with national race cyclist Rodman on the ‘Road to Rio’,” she said.

Kelly said that she is pleased to be adopted by Scotiabank.

“I am elated and pleased to be adopted by Scotiabank through the ‘Adopt a Player’ initiative and I am really happy to be a part of the family at Scotiabank. With this sponsorship I will be able to go to Sydney and certainly will look forward to stand on the gold medal podium, and to see the smile on everyone’s face as I say to myself, Scotiabank helped me to make this all possible,” she said.

Rodman welcomed the sponsorship and the extra push from Scotiabank.

“It has been very difficult for me with cycling as to get training equipment and stuff, but with Scotiabank coming on board to help me it is much easier to go to all these other countries and participate in qualifying races to get the points I need to go to Rio. And so I want to give a big thank you to Scotiabank,” Rodman noted.

President of NJ, Marva Bernard, expressed gratitude for the sponsorships and thanked Scotiabank for taking care of Kelly.

“This is just really wonderful. If ever there was an organisation banking on the development of netball in Jamaica, it is Scotiabank. Scotiabank has been involved in NJ development programme from 2006, and Malysha Kelly was a natural fit for them because they have been supporting the teams that she has been on, and they have supported her to the World Youth Championships in 2009, and they have come back on board by adopting her and that is really good and we are grateful for that,” the president said.

“Indeed, also is the extra gift, to ensure that we can take our Under-14 programme islandwide and that is something NJ will be focusing on come 2016. We have already stated and we are going in every parish to ensure that we have an Under-14 programme going on,” Bernard ended.