Football pals donate playing fees to boys' home

A group of men, who have kept their college bond through playing football after work, is set to donate some of the money they raised to rent a football field to the underfunded Muirton Boys' Home in eastern Portland.

The group, which is made up of 14 men, played football recreationally throughout their days as students at The University of West Indies. When they entered the workforce after graduating from UWI roughly 10 years ago, the men felt like it would be a good idea to keep playing together.

They play on an artificial surface at Football Factory on the campus of Shortwood Teachers' College.

"To play, we would need to put up at least $700 or $800 each because of the cost of the surface," one of the men, Dwight Jackson said.

According to Jackson, the demands of their jobs have caused them not to play as often as they would like.

"So on nights when we don't play, what we do is we would put away that money - and we haven't been playing a lot recently - so in the last year, we managed to raise just over $100,000," Jackson said.

CHARITABLE INSTITUTION

"We reached out to the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development to assist us in finding some kind of charitable institution that we could assist with this donation and we were put in touch with the Muirton Boys' Home."

Minister of state in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, Floyd Green, told THE STAR that he welcomes the gesture and wants to encourage others to do the same.

"From time to time, in order to keep our homes running for the boys and girls to have access to some of the amenities that you would use in their development, we would need support and it takes public and private partnership," Green said.

"It is something that is truly appreciated by the Government and I would encourage more people to give; and kudos to the guys."

Jackson said that he hopes the group can continue to make donations to charitable institutions like this one.

Muirton Boys' Home is a childcare facility for boys between the ages of 11 and 18, including those with mental and physical disabilities.