Play & pay for a cause

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A group of professionals decided to help the society. They thought of organising some funds, but not by the usual musical nights or fashion shows.

“We will play football and pay for our participation,” decided the members of Round Table, a non-political organisation for male entrepreneurs below 40. And, they would use the money raised for upgrading a school in Kochi.

“Our mission was to construct class rooms and set up a computer lab at Punnakkal School. We were guided by MLA Hibi Eden, who took pains to prepare a project on how we should proceed,” said Razin Rahman, chairman of Ernakulam Round Table.

“We thought we must raise the fund ourselves and it should also have something to do with promotion of football,” said Razin.

Last week, members of the Round Table gathered at the artificial turf of the regional sports centre for the soccer fiesta.

There were doctors, engineers, lawyers and entrepreneurs in shorts and boots, ready to play 20-minutes game for the cause. It was a working day, and at least 35 members turned up. Most of them hadn’t played in years.

“Football is a wonderful exercise. The fruit of sweat is always sweet and when we use it for helping others, the satisfaction is even more.

So, even when we sweated it out, none of us complained. It was a great feeling,” said a member, Suraj George Varughese.

Round Table had also decided to organise a party for fund-raising and the amount from the football matches was added to it, which was later doubled by putting down the share from their common budget. “We had done fund-raisers even before, but this was the first time we got involved in sports,” said Razin.

“Many well-wishers suggested that we chose cricket as it is also the IPL season, but there is nothing extra that has to be done for cricket promotion. On the other hand, we thought if our initiative could also help popularise football, it would be a novel move,” he added.

Even though all those who played felt cramps the next day, they knew it was the result of something good.

“We knew before the first whistle that it was going to wear us down, that we were going to get cramps and back pains. But we wanted to enjoy both, the game and the fund-raising initiative,” said Suraj.