Refurbished Rugby Boots Project – By Senaka Amerasinghe
Source : Old Antonian Social Club Australia 41st Annual Dinner Dance Souvenir
Diehard old Antonian Palitha Anthony, based in Negambo, Sri Lanka in his quest to find solutions to the multitude of issues facing the Antonian fraternity was instrumental in initiating this project. Cost escalation of all items in Sri Lanka is the order of the day and Rugby boots are no exception. Purchasing a pair of Rugby boots is prohibitive to most households in Sri Lanka. Palitha spoke to his good friend in Sydney Shane Thambimuththu on the issue and Shane immediately started collecting boots in Sydney.
Shane wanted our assistance to collect boots from Melbourne and so we did and along with the boots collected by Shane, in 2023 we dispatched 65 refurbished boots and Rugby shorts to college in 2 boxes (Tea chests) and we also added an additional box of lady’s clothes and shoes for the support staff. This year we continued with the project and sent 39 refurbished boots & 26 joggers in 2 boxes and also another 2 boxes of ladies’ clothes, shoes and hand bags.
Last year, Shane along with his classmate Manoj Wijekulasuriya and son Tehan were the main contributors. Christy Peter and Jinendra Bandara too assisted. This year Manoj, Christy, Norman Thompson with his family, Kapila Kasthuriyarachchi and Titus Peter contributed along with some others who wished to remain anonymous. Four ladies, spouses of our members, too contributed and wanted their names withheld.
We also acknowledge the efforts of the Antonian Rugby Board and group 85 members Nalinda Suriyampola, Jayantha Mantilake and Maurice Joachim in coordinating and distributing back at the receiving end. We wish to continue this project with the collections made immediately after the Oval / Football season that culminates by the end of winter. We will concentrate only on collecting Rugby boots hereafter. We have around 40 players in the U19 squad, 25 in the U18 squad, 30 in the U16 squad 25 each in the U12 & U14 (2 teams each), with a total of over 145 Rugby players. We also have Hockey & Football teams using the same type of boots. The potential to help is enormous.
