Celebrating Calvert Woods

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Friday 2 June 2006 marked the first anniversary of the death of Calvert Woods, one of this nation’s younger committed sports personalities.
On Friday last, a few family members and the principal and staff of the last institution at which he taught gathered at the graveside to celebrate Calvert Woods.
It is important to emphasise that it was very much a celebration; a celebration of the life and times of Calvert Woods.
Unfortunately, not many of those with whom he served and whom he assisted in the field of sports in St Vincent and the Grenadines found the time to join the small gathering in the brief celebration.
One can only hazard a guess that it all seems so very easy to forget those who have contributed so much in so short a period of time.
Talk is indeed cheap and it is easy to forget.
Perhaps if the celebration took the form of a party with drinks and food awash we would probably have had to man the gates.

Commitment
No one who knew Calvert Woods could ever question his commitment. It did not seem to matter what the task was, Calvert was eager to commit himself to the full to any and every assignment he had undertaken.
Calvert may not always have pushed himself to the forefront but his penchant for ensuring that assigned tasks were eagerly completed was never in question.
At times he may have been more than a little tardy, leaving some things for the very last minute, but the commitment to see it through to completion was never in doubt.
When he became involved in the work of the National Olympic Academy (NOA) he always attempted to bring to the organisation new ideas about enhancing its many programmes and was eager to put his shoulder to the wheel to ensure implementation, once the ideas were approved.
His participation in the activities of the NOA was always sure to engender humour even in the most serious and trying circumstances. There was always some story to tell or some remark that sparked laughter that made light work of the task at hand.