A global charitable Appeal based at RAF Shawbury, in North Shropshire, has continued its excellent links with Shrewsbury Town FC following another huge donation of football kit.
The Taking Football to Africa and Beyond Charitable Appeal operates from the North Shropshire Airbase and delivers ‘Aid through Football’ to adults and youngsters across the globe.
The Appeal has always had excellent links with Shrewsbury Town FC through its work with the Shrewsbury Town in the Community Team, the Armed Forces Covenant and the fabulous links with the club as the home of Royal Air Force Football. The RAF play their home Inter Service matches at the stadium by kind permission of the Chairman, Roland Wycherley.
These fabulous links have resulted in many huge donations of kit from the club. Neil visited the club recently to collect 16 large bin bags of kit from shop manager Siobhan Hayes and kit man Dave Ashlin. The collection also included some bags of personal kit and clothes donated by Assistant Manager Chris Doig.
The donated items have now been sorted and boxed and are ready for delivery. In total the club donated 200 football shirts and 455 other items. Some of the items will shortly depart for Kenya where they will be delivered by the team at Easter in 2018. The visit will co-incide with the RAF celebrating its 100th birthday. The mixed service and civilian team will deliver in schools and to clubs across Nairobi and in Gilgil and Kandara as well as in the huge slum town areas of Kibera, Mathare and Kibagare.
Neil said, ‘as usual we are overwhelmed by the fantastic assistance given to us by Roland Wycherley and all of the staff at Shrewsbury Town FC. The club continues to show why it is the home club of the RAF, especially through its assistance to the service and civilian personnel at RAF Shawbury and also the RAF FA. I look forward to delivering items from the club across the world including on our delivery trips to Nepal at Christmas and Kenya at Easter.’