A decades-old unfair negative reputation of the Pinelands neighborhood in St Michael, Barbados, is being targeted for reform through a community-led initiative focused on celebrating the area’s outsized contributions to local sports. Hamilton Lashley, a well-known community activist and former Member of Parliament, is heading up a special committee that is turning the spotlight on the talented athletes and administrators who have called Pinelands home, while working to rewrite the community’s harmful narrative.
Lashley, speaking in an exclusive interview with Barbados TODAY, explained that the campaign builds on decades of work by local organizers who have long used sports as a tool to reshape public perception of Pinelands. The effort traces its urgency back to a damaging phrase coined by a former judge generations ago: “P for Perry, P for Pine and P for Prison.” This offhand comment cemented a widespread unfair stigma that has clung to the community, even as it produced dozens of standout sporting figures who have shaped Barbadian athletics at every level.
At the core of the committee’s plans is the creation of the Pinelands Community Hall of Fame, which will induct local sports icons who have left a lasting mark on both their neighborhood and the broader national sporting landscape. The first figure slated for honors is Rawle Clarke, a beloved former national athlete and sports administrator who resided in Pinelands’ Regent Hill neighborhood and passed away in 2023. To honor Clarke’s decades of work organizing everything from community-level competitions to Barbados’ National Industrial Games and Senior Games, the committee is launching the Rawle Clarke Memorial Community Athletic Meet. The one-day event will bring together residents from Pinelands, St Barnabas and other surrounding neighborhoods, as well as local schools from the St Michael East constituency, to celebrate Clarke’s legacy and unite the broader local community.
The committee has also submitted a formal proposal to Barbados’ National Sports Council to rename the public pasture adjacent to Parkinson Memorial School in honor of the Forde brothers — Ivan, Colin, and Mark Forde — all three of whom are alumni of the school and have had transformative impacts on Barbadian football at local, regional, and international levels. Ivan “Speed” Forde is a legendary former player and longstanding popular football commentator, Colin “Potato” Forde enjoyed a career as a national team player before moving into coaching, and Mark “Bob” Forde is one of Barbados’ most prominent FIFA-certified referees, with a decades-long tenure as an administrator for the Barbados Football Association. All three are still active in their 50s and 60s, and Lashley says their contributions deserve permanent public recognition.
As the government moves forward with plans to develop new mini-stadia across the island and install new lighting at the Pinelands pasture, the committee hopes the renaming ceremony can coincide with the inaugural Rawle Clarke Memorial Athletic Meet for a major combined celebration. The initiative does not stop there: Lashley’s committee also plans to rename the hard court adjacent to the main playing field to honor outstanding Pinelands netball players, turning the day into a broad rebranding event that centers the community’s positive contributions.
The ultimate goal of the entire project, Lashley emphasized, is to lift up the Pinelands community, celebrate the deep sporting legacy its residents have built, and finally erase the unfair stigma that has defined the neighborhood for far too long.