Fraser-Pryce continues to foster peace in W’house

Her accolades are numerous, but one of Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce's greatest accomplishment may be her commitment to helping her Waterhouse community stay on the track through tolerance and peace.

The multiple Olympic and World champion hosted the seventh Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce Six-a-Side Football League Final at Foska Oval off Spanish Town Road yesterday. The competition, part of her "Peace through Sport" initiative, was created as a means to involve the community in charting a better path to resolve conflicts and promote unity.

Twenty-four hours after accepting the Best Female Athlete at the inaugural Pan American Sports awards in Florida on Saturday, she was back where she grew up handing out prizes and seeing patrons come together. The tension that occurred earlier in the year was all the more reason for Fraser-Pryce to have the tournament.

"The reason I started the competition was to foster peace within the community and if we are able to still have the competition, [we can] help the individuals in the community to understand that initiatives like these can only take place when we are violence-free and it is a great way to bring the community members together," she told STAR Sports.

"If we can engage them in the game of football, then we can help them to settle their differences a different way. We can come together no matter where they are from and they can play football and football."

"The support not only from the community but from the sponsors that have continued to support the movement.

"I'm really excited about the outcome and the fact that sponsors continue to support the community because these are the individuals that purchase the products and are consumers. I want them to know that as sponsors, we're able to come into the community and engage them as well," she said.

Youngest team

The 2019 edition of the tournament was won by Legacy United, the youngest team in the tournament, defeating tournament debutantes Lyrics 2-0 in the final. Fraser-Pryce said that the tournament has become a yearly fixture for the community

"They look forward to come out each evening and to have fun and to celebrate. And I would love to be able to have initiatives like these to continue to get rid of the violence in the community. And we can have initiatives that will impact the overall growth of the community not just for the men but for the women and the kids as well. "

Joseph Miller from Legacy United echoed the same sentiment, praising the continued supporter that she has shown for Waterhouse. "It's a very good competition. It's good for the community, it has helped to keep down the crime and violence and get the youths involved. If you don't have things like this then things can go wrong so it's a good thing that Shelly-Ann has doing for the community and I just want her to come up with great ideas," he said.