UPPER CESTOS, River Cess – For more than five years, River Cess has not been able to host the preliminary rounds of the County Sports Meet because there existed no playing pitch that met the Liberia Football Association’s standards.

The county team sometimes had to travel to Sinoe, Lofa or Nimba for those earlier rounds of the tournament.

On Saturday, April 8, River Cess citizens gathered in Darsaw Town in Upper Cestos, to witness the groundbreaking ceremony of the first ever sports stadium, a project initiated by Timothy Paulus, a River Cess citizen.

Paulus said the project will cost US$162,000 to complete, and he’s calling on all River Cess citizens to be a part by contributing to the project.

“The outer fence will cost us US$40,000, and if we can do that between now and December, I can assure you that we will host the tournament this December,” Paulus said. “River Cess will have to be the host of one of the preliminary rounds of the county meet this 2017.”

He said the Ministry of Youth and Sports would assist in the project if the county also contributed.

“If we will host the tournament, then we must do the outer fence first. When we build that fence inside, then the ministry will help us with small money so we can build the other small, small things,” Paulus said. “Right now we have asked one WASH group to build the toilet for us and they have agreed.”

Theo Joseph launched the project. Photo: Eric Doue

Theo D. Joseph, who launched the program, pledged his support to the project, and at the same time contributed US$3,000.

“I want to tell you that I am giving this project my everything. This means that I will always be with you up to the end,” Joseph said. “Even though I have not been in this county for 30 years now, but it is this project that will now bring me here every so often because of this the most important project. Sports [is] a unifier.”

Several county officials, including Representative Byron Zanwhea of River Cess’ second district, Assistant Superintendent for Development Ruth Sawmadal, former Superintendent Wellington Geevon Smith, and other prominent citizens attended the program and contributed to the project.

Featured photo by Eric Doue. 

Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly captioned the photo of Theo Joseph as Timothy Paulus. Additionally, the amount contributed by Joseph has been correctly revised from US$300 to US$3,000.