It was an impressive ceremony and it was held at its usual home-the St. Thomas’ Primary School. The ceremony effectively signaled the commencement of the 15th annual Football summer camp, hosted by Emmanuel EDDY Richards and his team.
The ceremony was ably chaired by team member, Mrs. Shinella Nisbett, who welcomed all present. Another team member and wife of the founder of the camp, Mrs. Janice Richards, offered the invocation and led out in the singing of the national anthem of St. Kitts and Nevis.
Mr. Emmanuel Richards then gave a comprehensive and historic overview of the tournament’s development, throughout its 15 years of existence. He pointed to its humble beginnings in 2004, with four young footballers registered and one other coach outside of himself, in Evred WEBBO Herbert. The lone sponsor then was Mr. Andy Liburd of Nevis Multiline Services.
The program has grown in leaps and bounds ever since, with quite a number of sponsors on board at this time. He singled out the various sponsors for special praise and noted that the T-shirts for the children this year, will reflect the different sponsors, for the respective period of sponsorship. He admonished the children to learn as much as they can and take back what they would have learned to their fellow students at the various schools, as in the new term, the Primary Schools’ Football league, is one of the features on the schools’ sporting calendar.
Also giving remarks was Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Social Development, Mr. Keith Glasgow, who had glowing praise for Mr. Richards and his team and noted that his Ministry and Department of Sports, will continue to support the program, in its quest to develop the youngsters, on a holistic level. He urged the youngsters to take the program seriously, as there were many opportunities in the offing for Footballers and Football related forms of employment. He pointed to the fact that Nevis’ very own Kimbel Ward is an international FIFA referee and asked the youngsters to seek to emulate him.
A number of the sponsors’ representatives were also on hand and they were given an opportunity to say a few words on behalf of their respective companies, which they all did quite eloquently. Mr. Richards, in turn, delivered certificates of appreciation to all of the sponsors.
The Bank of Nevis donated a brand new football to the program, and Mervin Powell of Mervin’s Car Rental donated a large number of socks to the program.
Mr. Emmanuel Richards gave the vote of thanks and the over fifty participants, were taken to the field, to commence their two weeks of intense skills training.