RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Both the young and old came out to the Mon Re­pos Recre­ation Ground, in San Fer­nan­do, on East­er Mon­day to en­joy a day of fun and games.

Mon Re­pos/Navet is an age­ing com­mu­ni­ty plagued with un­em­ploy­ment, but de­spite tough eco­nom­ic times, the res­i­dents pooled their re­sources to­geth­er to have their day of fun.

Led by their coun­cil­lor Nigel Cout­ti­er and with as­sis­tance from San Fer­nan­do May­or Ju­nia Re­grel­lo, they were able to en­joy many tra­di­tion­al games in­clud­ing egg and spoon, three-legged race, re­lay, nee­dle and thread, sack race and sev­er­al oth­ers.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, Re­grel­lo said spon­sor­ship came par­tial­ly from the May­or’s Fund. He said af­ter COVID, many peo­ple were hit with non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases.

“We are now ad­vo­cat­ing for healthy lifestyles and the San Fer­nan­do mantra is that sports are im­por­tant, healthy eat­ing and ex­er­cise are im­por­tant too,” Re­grel­lo said.

He added: “We are urg­ing peo­ple, es­pe­cial­ly young peo­ple, to stay away from junk, pre­pare your veg­gies and pro­vi­sions, eat plen­ty of fi­bre and stay away from car­bo­hy­drates. Get away from the tablet and the TV and get out­side and in­to the hot sun.”

The winning march past team poses for a photo with San Fernando Mayor Junia Regrello at the event.

KRISTIAN DE SILVA

He ex­pressed grat­i­tude to Cout­ti­er and his team, say­ing he was pleased to see a re­turn of the tra­di­tion­al East­er sports.

“This brings about uni­ty and it is the type of ca­ma­raderie that we want to see,” he added.

Mean­while, Cout­ti­er said he was able to get spon­sor­ship from peo­ple abroad as well as with­in the com­mu­ni­ty.

He said the event start­ed with a 5K marathon, fol­lowed by the March Past. Led by train­er Nichol­son Gor­don, the Mon Re­pos team dressed in black and gold, did a spec­tac­u­lar dance and march chore­og­ra­phy that brought ap­plause from the au­di­ence. Cout­ti­er said this was his first sport­ing event as a coun­cil­lor and he want­ed to bring about a day of fun, par­tic­u­lar­ly for the el­der­ly and chil­dren.

“This is an age­ing com­mu­ni­ty and we felt it is im­por­tant to have a day of fun to build our fam­i­ly spir­it, our com­mu­ni­ty uni­ty and have a day where every creed and race could come to­geth­er to en­joy the games that we played as chil­dren. It is good, clean, healthy and fun,” Cout­ti­er said.

In the lead up to the sports day, sev­er­al artistes vouched for Cout­ti­er, in­clud­ing Gen­er­al Grant. Peo­ple from all across the San Fer­nan­do and Mara­bel­la ar­eas par­tic­i­pat­ed in the day’s ac­tiv­i­ties. Par­tic­i­pants were giv­en tro­phies and medals as well as prizes.