Football giants indeed

THE EDITOR: From the original Lantern Giants to the San Fernando Giants of today, there has emerged the longest surviving active football club. The club observed its 75th anniversary recently with a series of activities.

As it often is, in San Fernando and with football, the St Paul's Anglican Church was the venue for the club's thanksgiving service and its hall for the awards ceremony on November 1.

Here we have an unsponsored club, a model of volunteers in a community serving an organisation, ensuring continuity and more than mere survival.

The city can be proud of this achievement as many "Giants" have served from the days of UBOT, then Shell and later with some sort of sponsorship with Point Fortin Civic Centre of today, working merely on community spirit and dedication.

The awards ceremony, attended by Senator David Nakhid, parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs, was a fitting tribute to the spirit of those who served with a willingness to go long-term. So often we seem to have limited vision and become dormant, failing our villages.

In the case of the San Fernando Giants, we may find an example of what we can pursue as club structure is sadly lacking in so many aspects of our sports.

The city can stand tall as the club holds its youth programme as the nursery for grassroots development, ensuring the needed continuity.

San Fernando Giants, take a deserved bow and do keep up that spirit.

LENNOX SIRJUESINGH

former SFA president