Central F.C. footballers were at J.T.A. Supermarket in Couva on Saturday to collect food for Christmas hampers. The initiative was another example of The Sharks commitment to the Digicel Pro Leagues HOPE project and continues the clubs aims of completing at least two community events per month.
Defender Marc Leslie said “It’s always good to meet the people in our community and aside from collecting food for the needy today, hopefully we’ve made more people aware of the club who represents their community.”
Leslie was joined by striker Darryl Trim, midfielder Shaquille Nesbitt and U.S. import, Daniel Torre. Equipment Manager, David Moses and Operations Director Kevin Harrison made up the rota that spent over 3 hours outside the supermarket.
The players were collecting tinned and packet foods which will be made into Christmas hampers and distributed to needy families in the Central region.
Harrison said “We are grateful to J.T.A. for allowing us to approach their customers. Although it was a wet day, the response was very good and we want to applaud the generosity of the Couva community.”
Harrison said that the club would be out in force in Chaguanas next Saturday (8th December) to complete their food collection. “We are very proud of our players, who we ask to do a lot of work off the field in their free time. But we believe that this type of community work helps to develop the players and help them recognise the responsibilities they have as professional footballers and role models.”
Aside from collecting dozens of tins and packets, the Couva citizens also contributed cash donations. 20 year old Darryl Trim took charge of the donations and said “It was amazing, we collected over $360, which when you consider we were only asking for food, was really generous.” Money collected will be used to purchase perishable items for the hampers.
Harrison added “We are hoping that local businesses will donate some food items to add to our collection. We need items such as cereals, soft drinks, milk, bread, sugar, flour, rice and cakes. It would also be great to include candy and snacks if we can obtain them.”
Saturday was a busy day for the California based club who attended a HIV awareness event in Freeport in the afternoon.
Harrison said “You can never guarantee to win a football match, and despite a fantastic performance, your team can still lose. But off the field, we can make sure that Central F.C. are winners every time. Our Football in the Community programme is very important to us and we take our commitment to the community very seriously.”
For details of Saturdays food collections in Chaguanas go to the CentralFCTT facebook page.