Lions Club Pledges More Support for Physically Challenged Athletes

Olakiitan Victor in Ado Ekiti

As Nigeria’s special athletes did Nigeria proud at the just ended Paralympic Games in Rio, Brazil, the Lions Club International, has urged government and well-meaning Nigerians to contribute to the development of untapped talents at the grassroots.

The club said the scintillating performances of these physically challenged athletes further affirmed the fact there is need to increase support for sports talents from humble backgrounds in the country, stressing that youths from humble homes are potential nation’s pride if given the opportunities to excel.

Lions Club District 404B 2 gave the advice during the Region 10 (Ekiti Axis) quarterly sports activities, organised to encourage members to engage in sporting games that would elongate their lifespan .

The immediate past President of Ado-Ekiti Central Lions’ Club, Taiwo Odebunmi , who coordinated the committee for the sports programme held at the Oluyemi Kayode Stadium in Ado-Ekiti at the weekend said: “We discover that many Lions Club members are hard working, some are civil servants, some are private businessmen who spend a lot of time in office, sitting down , doing a lot of businesses and do not have time to loosen up.

“We discover that many of the causes of deaths is hypertension and we don’t want any of our members to suffer such because we need them. The longer they live, the better for our club, the better for the less privileged.

“This is why our district Governor, Lion Adewunmi, has decided that during this year, we will engage our people in sporting activities so that they can improve their health. So, we chose to organise the sporting activities on quarterly.

“We have organised sports contests among youths in schools across Ekiti, but what we are doing today is the maiden edition of the sports involving lions in the state.
“Some have talents that can be useful and some have money and they don’t know where they could use it for the benefit of the common people. In this club, we have been able to sponsor a young man who is already now in the Law School. This is the kind of things we do to help the needy and make them also relevant in the society”, Odebunmi said.

At the conclusion of the sports activities, Victor Ola Jegede emerged winner in ‘Ayo olopon’ (local indoor game), Olumuyiwa Ekundayo for the Scrabble, Mrs. Folake Adebayo won in Ludo, and Kolawole Vincent won in Whots games respectively.