Retired Linden teacher finds joy in agro processing venture

Jun 19, 2022 News

By Vanessa Braithwaite

Kaieteur News – Many experience mixed emotions when it comes to retirement. They are either anxious for a time to down tools or they are scared of venturing into an unproductive, unfulfilled phase, something they are not used to. For Linden’s renowned Principal Cleveland Thomas, retirement opened a door to a whole new adventure.

‘Sir’ Cleveland Thomas

COTS Culinary Products prepared by ‘Sir’ Thomas and his family

After spending close to four decades as an astute educator and role model, he decided to take his retirement journey on the path of agri-entrepreneurship with COTS culinary products. COTS green seasoning concoction, achar and pepper sauce is now a household product in the Linden community and can be found in many retail neighbourhood shops and supermarkets.
This career shift was surprising to many Lindeners who pictured Sir Thomas or ‘Thomo’ as he is popularly called gravitating towards private tutoring or lecturing at a tertiary institution. He, however, believes that he has contributed significantly to the advancement of education in Linden, and is satisfied that he brought his alma mater, the Christianburg Wismar Secondary School (CWSS) back to its glory days as well as upgrade its status to a sixth form school.
Reminiscing on his career journey, Sir Thomas said he started teaching on October 9,1983, at the Johnson High School, then was transferred to the Mackenzie High School (MHS). He took brief sabbaticals to pursue tertiary education but stated that it was his experience at MHS, under the stewardship of Miss Janice Gibson, that he flapped his wings. “It was at the MHS I really started to emerge…under Miss Gibson, I was able to find my niche and I worked from there until 2004,” he said.
The entire Linden community would agree, that ‘Sir’ Thomas has been a role model, a disciplinarian and a revolutionary. He has left an indelible mark on the lives of thousands of students he came into contact with daily and has been a real catalyst for students’ all-round development. He has been not a boss, but a leader who walks alongside and not behind. At school sports, teachers’ marches and other activities, he had proudly represented his staff and students in the public domain. ‘Sir’ Thomas made headlines when he protested the Ministry of Education’s ‘No Child Left Behind’ policy because he believed such a policy would hinder a child’s development, instead of improve it.
Now that he has retired, the respected educator said he is not returning to the classroom, even though he teaches online classes on a part-time basis. He is now enjoying his retirement project which he calls his hobby. ‘Sir’ Thomas is leading the family business, COTS. In his home, he produces hundreds of bottles of green seasoning, which can be sourced at most supermarkets and retail stores. They are available in one litre, two litres and half litre bottles.
In much the way he took pride in educating the nation’s children, he takes pride in his manufacturing forte as, according to him, he must be on top of his game to compete with top brands such as Umami and Prestige. COTS products consist of only natural ingredients and has a shelf life of two years. A one litre bottle can season up to 30 pounds of meat. It also consists of other natural flavouring ingredients such as garlic, thyme and ginger. “I said I am going to use this as a retirement package, it is a kind of a hobby, not anything stressful. Had I known it would have been so much fun, I would have left teaching since 2015 because it is a lot of fun; it’s a nice home thing, nothing big and fancy as yet,” he said.
He has expressed gratitude to the Linden community for accepting his product; the response to it has been overwhelming.