John spent just over an hour with students from standards one to three, reading to them and engaging in a question and answer segment.
He answered several questions from curious students about his football career and life in general and he also stressed the need for the little ones to see reading as more than a hobby.
John handed out some three hundred autographed bookmarks which carried a profile and further information on his recently set up Legacy Foundation.
He also presented a Legacy of the Soca Warriors Book to the School’s library technician Lesley Ann Seegobin as well as several other books to the school’s main library.
“This was an ideal opportunity for me to spend some valuable time with the kids and share some of my stories with them and it was really heartwarming to see their reactions to what took place this morning,” John said.
“Even though I played football all my life, being able to read and understand has helped me a lot along the way and I wanted to get this over to the kids – the importance of reading to allow yourselves to learn more and also have a good sporting background,” John added.
Shalini Beharry, a member of the Stern John Legacy Foundation mentioned that John would also be getting involved in different aspects of development in the coming months.
“The foundation consists of four pillars which includes Read, which we covered today, Grow – which is to encourage the growing of crops in homes and schools especially by the younger ones, Play – which will be done through football coaching and other exercises and Serve which is something a bit more personal to Stern because he wants to contribute to cancer and epilepsy awareness. Stern’s mom died of cancer last year and he has a family member who is epileptic,” Beharry stated.
“The foundation is just a way of me trying to keep active by contributing back to the national society because while I might have played in England, the chance to represent my country is what created opportunities for me to establish myself at a higher level on the international front.
Hopefully I can have some partners come on board and join this cause because I think there’s a lot we can offer back to society,” the 35-year-old John added.