McDonald’s Player Escort Programme launched.
T& Newsday Reports.
ARCOS DORADOS, the largest McDonald’s franchisee in Latin America and the Caribbean, announced a new partnership with the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) and the Heroes Foundation/Big Brothers Big Sisters of Trinidad and Tobago.
This announcement was made during the launch of its Player Escort Programme, held on Thursday morning at the McDonald’s outlet on Cipriani Boulevard, Port-of-Spain.
Vouchers to participate in the programme, which gives one child the opportunity of a lifetime, to meet and escort a football player during a quarter-final match of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, are available at the local McDonald’s outlets (including West Mall, Grand Bazaar, Gulf View and Gulf City Mall) until April 28.
As an official sponsor of the flagship FIFA World Cup since 1994, this year’s McDonald’s Player Escort Programme is available to children in 70 countries, including the twin-island republic.
Through this initiative, approximately 1,400 children from all over the globe will have the opportunity to live their dreams of walking onto the field, hand-in-hand with their football heroes, at the start of each FIFA World Cup match.
The launch was attended by national football team coach Stephen Hart, as well as children from the TTFA youth programme — St Agnes Anglican School — and executives from McDonald’s, the TTFA and the Heroes Foundation/Big Brothers Big Sisters of Trinidad and Tobago. The collaboration between the organisations is part of a strategy to help raise awareness with youth for the programme, which is being offered for the first time by McDonald’s in Trinidad and Tobago. “We know that football is a favourite sport of many of our local customers, and we’re happy to be a part of the FIFA World Cup excitement by now offering the Player Escort Programme to them,” said Jameela Mohammed- Ali, TT market manager for Arcos Dorados, Latin America’s largest restaurant chain and the world’s largest McDonald’s franchisee. “At McDonald’s, we do our part to ensure that children have opportunities, like Player Escort, to fulfill their dreams as well as promote healthy and active lifestyles.”
TTFA president Raymond Tim Kee pointed out, “we feel very excited about McDonald’s, one of FIFA’s partners for the World Cup, bringing this promotion to our country to afford the opportunity for one of our kids to experience the thrill of the World Cup in Brazil later this year.
“This is what dreams are made of and it is my hope that it inspires our youth to keep dreaming and to also develop a passion and love for the game of football.”
The Heroes Foundation/Big Brothers Big Sisters of Trinidad and Tobago, a non-profit group that provides youth with mentorship activities, added to the sentiment expressed by the other organisations.