NYPD’s FINEST SOCCER TEAM vs. RGPF’s FINEST GAME SET for MAY 3, 2019 in GRENADA
by Gerry Hopkin, JD
Brooklyn, NY; March 11, 2019 – “Grenada soccer fans, are you ready for the planned upcoming showdown at the Grenada National Stadium?” This is the rhetorically optimistic query of Nigel Jones, the Chief Executive Officer of PromoCaribbean, a main sponsor along with NY Red Bulls, a long-time and current donor-sponsor of the New York Police Department’s (NYPD’s) Finest Soccer Team’s goodwill-humanitarian tour of Grenada.
The NYPD’s Finest Soccer Team, which was launched in 1988 and includes Grenadian-born Larry Roberts, an active senior team member since 2003, will be doing this goodwill tour in Grenada from April 30th to May 5th, 2019.
The activities in Grenada, will involve friendly matches, the administration of soccer clinics for youths with the involvement of the Grenada Football Association, and donations of soccer gear to local players. Countries visited in the past through this initiative, include Peru, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Haiti, Tridinad and Tobago, Dominican Republic and South Korea. Regarding 2020, the team is already considering visiting Jamaica.
In terms of benefits, this initiative fosters goodwill and improved understanding among and between the members of NYPD’s Finest, the players against whom they shall play and the many youngsters whom they shall train and interact with.
Generally, this humanitarian gesture, which the NYPD team has been involved with since 2007, has positively shown the world, especially the youths encountered abroad and their friends and relatives in the USA, that NYPD members do engage in sporting activities like everyone else, and that they do care about making a difference in the lives of others, outside of policing.
The NY Red Bulls has been sponsoring NYPD’s Finest soccer team since 2007, by donating soccer equipment for their efforts, so they can complete their annual humanitarian missions. “Without Red Bulls’ generous contributions, the team would be limited in our missions,” said NYPD’s Finest Soccer team manager, Retired Lieutenant Ron Mejia Sr.
HOPE SOLO, goalkeeper on the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team and an Olympic Champion, is seen here with LARRY ROBERTS, active senior team member of NYPD’s Finest Soccer Team (2003 to the present). The NYPD team will be doing a goodwill tour in Grenada from April 30th to May 5th, 2019Learn more here
According to Roberts, “The players on my team have been raising funds from among themselves to finance these tours over the years. They do it out of pure love for the sport and the genuine goodwill which they share with every team they engage and among the youths they train in every country they tour.”
As stated by Mejia, “We wish that the training, the donation of soccer equipment, and the encouraging words which we impart, would encourage excellence in sports, education and other activities of life and be appreciated by all whom we come in contact with.”
“Additionally, it is our hope that our fellow officers here in the NYPD and those whom we come in contact with in Grenada, would see value in what we do on the soccer field, thus we can all hold ourselves in high esteem, for having taken the time to do what we are doing,” Mejia added.
It is also the hope of the members of NYPD’s Finest that their efforts in this initiative would inspire private sector entities and organizations to give back to society in one way or another — for example through volunteering to work with youths, or by sponsoring a worthwhile project, such as this one, thus positively contributing to community development and empowerment.
PromoCaribbean, PromoGrenada and NY Red Bulls, collaborating with CEEN TV and Blue Horizons Garden Resort in Grenada, are the main sponsors of NYPD’s Finest Soccer tour of 2019; while credit is due to Gerry Hopkin for his media messaging services.
Anyone interested in donating soccer gear, etcetera, towards this soccer humanitarian tour to Grenada, may do so by contacting Ron Mejia or Larry Roberts at 347-585-1186 or 917-805-7268. For additional information about the NYPD’s Finest Soccer Team, visit nyfinestsoccer.com.
Media Contact:
347-350-4285 | hopkinscg@gmail.com