Central FC entertain senior citizens
Wednesday, January 9 2013 Newsday
TRINIDAD and Tobago PRO League club Central FC organised a football treat for eight senior citizens and a care-giver from the Couva Home for the Elderly on Saturday.
The California-based club arranged for a bus to collect the residents and carry them to Ato Boldon Stadium in Couva, where Operations Director Kevin Harrison gave the group a mini-stadium tour, before taking up their seats to watch the club take on local rivals W Connection in a TT Pro League encounter.
Some of the spectators in attendance may have been surprised to see the elderly people decked out in Central FC jerseys parade out of the players tunnel and take up positions on the team bench, where they were welcomed by club’s Managing Director Brent Sancho.
“It was great to see these folks enjoy a day out,” said Sancho. “We met them when we donated a Christmas hamper. One of the residents said to us that people only remember the old folk at Christmas, and we realised that we, too, were guilty of doing that, so we decided that we would make a bigger effort to interact with the senior citizens as well as the youngsters from the Couva Childrens Home. I’m only sorry that we couldn’t provide them with a win!”
Central FC lost the game 3-0, but the result did not reflect the match which was hard fought by both teams.
“Although our VIPs were disappointed in the result, they thoroughly enjoyed their matchday experience and vowed to return to see another fixture,” said Harrison. “ We have to give thanks to Toyota who provided the bus and SIS who arranged for drivers. We would also like to thank the wonderful staff at Ato Boldon for their assistance and Julia Baptiste and Dexter Skeene of the TT Pro League for their support.”
Sancho said that the club were planning to bring youngsters from the Couva Childrens Home to their FA Trophy quarterfinal clash with Shiva Boys today.
“We’re a community club,” said Sancho. “And that means we have to work hard to interact with everyone from the very young to our elderly citizens. But we can’t do this on our own and we are grateful to our partners for their assistance.”
Harrison added, “football should be the glue that brings every element of our community together to take pride in their local teams. It’s a great opportunity for businesses, politicians and ordinary folk of every race and creed to unite as one voice and put their home town on the map.
“We’re proud to be Central and we want the citizens of Central to get behind us and promote their region as the best in TT.”
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