NEGRIL, Westmoreland — Over two dozen children, most of them from the junior tennis programme run by former national champion Maureen Rankine, were beneficiaries of dozens of pairs of shoes donated by former national junior representative Max Brown last weekend during the BCIC Couples Swept Away Clay Court tournament in Negril.

Brown, who is originally from Ocho Rios but now lives in Canada, has been quietly making contributions for the past 15 years and said on Monday, “We are trying to support tennis in Jamaica, especially at the grassroots level.”

“there is more to come”, he promised as he says he will be trying to make his contribution as often as possible.

“Every time we make a contribution we try to make it bigger and better than the last time,” Brown said, explaining that some of the shoes were not brand new but were not badly worn, and would have been thrown out into the garbage by families who could afford to purchase new ones on a regular basis.

Rankine, who has been operating an academy in Montego Bay for the past few years, welcomed the donation calling it “unbelievable”.

She said, “Max goes out of his way to help us and it is welcome and it makes it easy for some of the parents.”

— Paul Reid