President Lennart Meri today replied to the application of Mart Siimann, Chairman of the Kalev Sports Society, and informed that he is pleased to be the patron of the Kalev Games for the year 2001

The President confirmed that he is doing this out of respect for the Estonian sports and especially for the Kalev Sports Club, with which he also has remote family connections. The President recalled that as a boy of seven, his father had taken part in building the Kalev Society house on the bank of the Pirita River. ''This excellent example of the Nordic Jugendstil designed by Karl Burman became an excellent home for the whole Kalev Society, a source of great spiritual strength,'' the President wrote. The President's Uncle Konstantin held several sports records of the Kalev society, he added.

The President wished success to the Kalev Sports Society and said he was going to assume the tasks of the patron both because of the strong family affinity and the national role of the Kalev Sports Society – the Kalev Society represents one facet of the continuity of our cultural life, with the sports clubs that bore the same name in the times of foreign occupations.


Press Service of the Office of the President
Kadriorg, June 8, 2000

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