The Grassroot Tennis Club is extending its commitment to ensure that the immediate environs of club’s base are not only clean and green, but beautified.{{more}}

Having already ensured that its direct surroundings are taken care of, the club will be embarking on doing the same to the other side.

“We are adopting the area from the bridge from the Girls’ High School up to the gap that leads to Richmond Hill…. We are going to paint the bridge and we have had the commitment of a leading paint company towards this end…We are also going to clean the river, get rid of some of trees, but replacing them with others,” head of the GTC Grant Connell disclosed.

Connell noted that this will be done in conjunction with the professionals at the Forestry Division, Denise Punnett and the Richmond Vale Academy, who will lend their expertise and guidance to their efforts.

“Also we would like to see life return to the river, including the return of the active fish habitat, back to days when, as little boys, we would go to the same river and catch those fish we call millions,” Connell added.

Connell said that other volunteers are on board to ensure that undertaking is sustained.

“Our location is ideal … It forms part of the gateway into Kingstown… It is in the busiest area, where several hundred school children congregate to get their transportation to and from school, so keeping that area in tip-top shape could only engender in the young minds the value of decency and an appreciation for things natural… The club takes pride in the environment and the 200 pre-schoolers that attend the club weekly would learn from a young age the impact they can have on the environment and the role they play…,” the GTC head stated.

Continuing, Connell said, “Within 10 years we hope entities such as Vinlec would see the sense of placing the electric cables underground in the same area, saving the costly annual exercise of cutting the lovely trees as a precautionary act during each hurricane season…The trees would play a crucial role and provide shelter from the blistering sun daily…I’m certain all the homeowners in the area would get on board …We can’t complain, just do your part to ensure it remains for generations to come,” Connell reasoned.

“It is our hope that our initiative from Grassroot would diffuse to the more active heart of Kingstown and the entire capital can mirror what we are doing on our end,” Connell projected.

Apart from the soon to be rolled out project, the GTC has previously placed garbage bins through its ‘Bin It’ programme, planted trees and taken up the responsibility for the upkeep of its surroundings.(RT)