By Carlena Knight
Members of the general public are being encouraged to support the efforts of a local group that has made it their aim to assist former footballers in need.
President of the Football Past Players Support team Fitzgerald Semper made the call while speaking to this media house about a recent donation his group made to another former footballer.
Semper mentioned even the smallest donation would go a long way in assisting.
“When people fall on difficult times, sometimes, they really struggle to get assistance and so we are in place to do that. What we are asking is for persons in the public who would be willing and able to donate to any cause that we are putting out there. We encourage you to do so,” Semper said.
“We do have a bank account at ECAB, account number 112000577, so if you are in town and you have some money to donate you can just go to the bank and put it on the account, or you can contact myself or any member of the group and we will be glad to meet you and get the donation so that we can continue to assist persons who are in need. The needs are great and its really more than what we can do to help everyone, so, we encourage the public to join with us as we seek to do as much as possible to help these persons,”.
Semper revealed the group will also be looking at hosting their own fundraising drive. Details on that will however be made at a later date.
Earlier this week, members of the group made a donation to former Bendals and Hoppers player, Curty Henry.
“We became aware of one gentleman who used to play for Bendals FC and Hoppers FC, his name is Curty Henry and he had suffered an unfortunate incident some years ago and is now wheelchair bound. We got to understand that his relatives were in the process of building a structure for his dwelling. So, we thought we would pitch in and help in whatever way we could, so, myself and Steveroy ‘Demon’ Anthony, who is the founder of the organisation, got together with his brother and we were able to donate some blocks towards the project that they are now engaged in,” Semper detailed.
The group first became public in 2020 but was officially registered as a non-profit organisation just last year.
The organisation, in 2021, made a donation to the family of then gravely ill former national and Parham defender, Eustace “Barba” Ferrance. Later that year, the former player died from a suspected case of viral encephalitis or inflammation of the brain caused by a virus.