Celebs support Team Grenada for London Olympic Games 2012

LONDON, UK, November 11, 2010 - Grenada’s star athlete Kirani James was among celebrities and officials who attended a dinner at London’s historic House of Lords on Wednesday to launch a campaign to assist the Grenada Olympic team for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The dinner, organised by the St George’s University-based Windward Islands Research and Education Foundation (WINDREF), was also to support a special programme “Sport for Health in the Caribbean” which, it is hoped, will “inspire a new healthier generation of Caribbean youth”.

Also attending the dinner were Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister Glynis Roberts, who is at the World Travel Market in London, Grenadian-born Baroness Howells of St David; Permanent Secretary Marilyn Austin-Cadore; High Commissioner Ruth Rouse; WINDREF’s President, Lord Soulsby of Swaffham; President of the Grenada Olympic Committee Royston LaHee and entrepreneur and sponsor Denis Noel.

The keynote speaker was Lord Sebastian Coe the Chairman of the London 2012 Olympic Games Organising Committee and former double Olympic gold medallist who spoke on “Sport for Health in the Caribbean: the inspiration of the Olympics”.

Tables were sponsored by, amongst others, REACH Grenada, the Jason Roberts Foundation, Lord Ballyedmond, Sunderland University and St George’s University.

Sport for Health will make its debut in Grenada and it is intended that the message will spread to the rest of the Caribbean addressing the growing burden of childhood obesity and the chronic non- communicable diseases, including diabetes, and promote a healthier philosophy amongst the youth.

As a first step, Grenada’s Olympic athletes will be asked to become sporting ambassadors at sports days to he held in all Grenada’s secondary schools in the coming year. The programme is endorsed by the Government of Grenada and the Grenada Olympic Committee.

The Grenada Olympic Committee is hoping to send a 15-member team to the Olympic Games in London and has been making arrangements for a pre-games camp in the south-east of London.