1 year ago
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MARK NEITA, president of the Melbourne Cricket Club, has pledged the organisation’s continued support of Special Olympics Jamaica (SOJ) after a donation of $500,000 presented on Friday at the club grounds.
The donation was raised from expected proceeds from the annual Melbourne Cricket Club/Pure Water 5K Run/Walk event set for March 9.
However, the presentation was made before race day as the SOJ athletes are in the final stages of preparations for the 2025 Special Olympics World Winter Games, set to begin on March 8.
This was not the first time Melbourne CC had supported the SOJ, Neita explaining a relationship that started in 2015.
“The Special Olympics was actually the first organisation that we took onboard when we started in 2015. I had a really close relationship with Lorna Bell who was, at the time, the head of Special Olympics in Jamaica,” the Melbourne president explained.
“When we were looking for a charity to support, we thought that the Special Olympics aligned perfectly with being a sports-affiliated organisation that is under-served, similar to cricket in Jamaica. So we thought that the best thing for us to do was to donate to the Special Olympics.”
Since the start of their relationship, Melbourne has donated over $2 million to the SOJ, a figure he hopes to add to in the years to come.
Neita said for Melbourne to achieve its goal, it will need the support of the Jamaican public by registering for the annual Melbourne Cricket Club/Pure Water 5K Run/Walk.
“Over the years, this event has grown. We started by contributing $100,000, then we moved to $250,00 now we’ve moved to $500,000 today,” he recounted.
“Our commitment to Special Olympics does not end this year. We hope as we go forward, we can continue significantly more and we can only do that if we get mass participation by the public. We hope people will support us because we are supporting worthy causes.”
Coleridge ‘Roy’ Howell, SOJ executive director, sought to thank Melbourne for the donation which will play a significant role in their trip to Turin, Italy for the upcoming Special Olympics World Winter Games.
“This sponsorship is very important because planning and preparation to get this team to a world-class level of participation, it takes a lot of cash,” he said.
“We want to get them ready and prepared to compete against the world’s best. These athletes are training year round, so they are not short of that, but what they need is the support to get them there and to get them to participate.”
Howell has also called for the support of the public in cheering on their 17-athlete delegation set to represent Jamaica at the global competition.
“You can always expect good results. They never achieve less than top results.”
English (US) ·