TCL partners with Andrew Lewis Sailing Foundation

TRINIDAD Cement Limiter/Cemex and the Andrew Lewis Sailing Foundation, led by recent Olympic laser dinghy qualifier, Andrew Lewis, have announced a partnership, which will see the two parties promote community development, through sport, education and community team-building.

Lewis, who qualified for his third successive Olympic games two weekends ago, held a media conference, with TCL, on Monday, to announce the partnership, which is initially for one year – at an undisclosed value – although both parties said it may just the beginning of a longer partnership.

“I approached TCL with a very unique initiative...Not to partner with me as a sailor, to be branded on my boat, to get into different training camps and coaching, but to partner with the Andrew Lewis (Sailing) Foundation; something that’s been in existence for years…”

Lewis has a number of endorsements. However, he said, there is a difference with the collaboration between TCL/Cemex and the foundation.

“(What’s different is) being able to partner with somebody who wants to solely work for community building,” said Lewis.

“That is special. That is courageous to me.”

TCL will support the foundation as it ventures into various regions and engages in community development, through sport, education, and “overall community team-building.”

“I had a vision of what this foundation (has) and continues to stand for. It is to make TT a better place. And the main way I know how to do that is through mentoring and through sailing programmes.”

Lewis has a record of lending assistance to the underprivileged and flood victims, both in his personal capacity and through the foundation, as well as performing mentorship exercises and other philanthropic activities.

He said his partnership with TCL/Cemex is being publicised in order to raise awareness to the fact that we all “have the opportunity, every single day of life, to give back and to make a difference to TT, whether you are taking up a piece of litter from the floor,or simply recycling…”

“(What can) you or your company or your family do to help the country and our planet? Everybody has an opportunity to do this on a day-to-day basis.”

General Manager of TCL Guillermo Rojo De Diego said is was Lewis’s passion for developing community, his values, and resilience as an athlete, which made him an extraordinary personality. Rojo said they shared several things in common. They are both “proudly T&T” and “well-known ambassadors” abroad. Like TCL, Rojo said, Lewis overcame adversity to achieve his goals.

“I think it’s the truest one (we have in common), is the passion to develop communities.”