The Premier Park Singapore Sports Hub, seen here in an artist's rendering, is set up for soccer and has Olympic water training facilities for swimmers.

Photos courtesy of the Collins family

The Collins family of Cloverdale: Mark, Monica, Hunter and McKenzie.

One of the largest modern sports complexes in the world is being built in Singapore, called the Premier Park Singapore Sports Hub. What does that have to do with Botetourt County? Well -- we have global citizens right here in our fair county. The Singapore project manager is Mark Collins of the Cloverdale area, and he is the managing director of Global Spectrum Asia.

Collins and his wife, Monica, and their two children, Hunter and McKenzie, are active members of the community. He is in Singapore often, and son Hunter, a Read Mountain Middle School student, spent some of the summer there. Daughter McKenzie, of Cloverdale Elementary School, just won the Fincastle 5K Run in her elementary girl's age division. Monica Collins takes photographs of school events that her children participate in, and that is how The Botetourt View met her. She is also a fight attendant for US Airways.

Mark Collins was once the director of the Roanoke Civic Center.

"Premier Park will be a model for the rest of Asia to follow. It will bring global recognition to Singapore and it gives me a warm feeling inside and a sense of ownership that I will be a part of creating this sports history," he said.

Monica Collins graduated from Lord Botetourt High School, and she enjoys being here. Even if they have to move to Singapore for a while, the plan is to keep the family home here and come back often, as her parents live in the area. It is a 27-hour flight to Singapore from Botetourt County.

Her children have been fortunate to globe trot most of their lives so they think it is a normal way to live. Once, she flew her husband and kids to London over a weekend. On Monday the teacher asked Hunter what he did on the weekend and he replied, "I went to see where the Queen lived, road a double decker bus and took a tour for the Thames River." The teacher replied, "Yeah right," Monica said with a laugh.

The new sports complex is set up for soccer and also has Olympic water training facilities for swimmers and other water sports. It is even more interesting, as it will be built on top of a shopping mall.

The project is scheduled for completion in December 2011.