|
A dream . . .
Every great idea or vision starts off as a seed that, with time and nurturing, grows into a beautiful flower. The Legends concept is one of those visions.
Legends Background
John Allan, Gavin Varejes and a group of their contemporaries had a dream and were prepared to give the time and effort, however they needed water to germinate the seed - or in this case, financial backing. It was with another good friend, Greg Petzer from Astrapak, that Gerald Sweidan’s name came up and an appointment was duly made.
John tells how the Legends concept evolved and became a reality: “I had worked with Gerald early on in my career and knew him to be passionate and dedicated with a desire to achieve. From our first meeting we realised we shared the same character traits, and that the vision Gerald had was similar to the one I had for rugby. We reminisced about his dad Doc Sweidan, who was the Bok and Natal doctor for three decades, and through our memories and dreams for the future, Legends was born.
What SARLA has achieved for under-privileged and club rugby since inception (over the last 3 years) is nothing short of remarkable, all of which would not have been possible without the substantial support and commitment of former Springboks, first class rugby players, coaches, referees, business associates and sponsors, all of whom contribute enthusiastically without any financial reward… you are all absolute Legends! On behalf of the entire SARLA committee, we thank you sincerely.
Gavin Varejes (President: SARLA)
"The initial purpose of the Legends brand world wide is to highlight the need to support amateur rugby at all levels. Most money generated by rugby goes towards the professional code of the game which caters for less than 1% of the players. This has led to the neglect of the amateur code on a world wide scale. It is now time to focus on the full spectrum of rugby from schoolboys at grassroots level to the veteran players who have played the game for over 30 years for fun.
"Today the eLAN Legends has grown into a full blown social awareness charity using Sport as the catalyst to bring people together and then evolving their sport aspirations as well as educating them about Health, wealth and social characteristics. We have embarked on a sustainable Legacy Park project which has become our flagship, whereby over a 10 year period we are raising One Billion Rands to build 400 multi-purpose facilities in the economically disadvantaged communities to help our country solve their sport and social challenges and as a consequence will feed 500 000 street kids PER DAY.”
John Allan (CEO: SARLA)
|
.jpg)
.jpg)
