Players join with Dogs Trust to celebrate Chinese New Year
Shrewsbury Town players and staff celebrated Chinese New Year in style last Friday (16th February).
Organised by Training Ground Chef Dave Hindhaugh, the players were treated to a Chinese-style chicken stir-fry for lunch and were then visited by some very special guests.
Four dogs and a host of Dogs Trust volunteers visited the training facility with players able to come outside and meet their four-legged friends.
Alex Rodman, Mat Sadler, Ben Godfrey and Craig MacGillivray – who once had 12 dogs as a child – were all on hand to get fully involved, whilst Manager Paul Hurst, who has a dog of his own, also took time to say hello.
The event was a great opportunity for the club to work closely with a local charity and Emma Cox, from Dogs Trust, was delighted with how the event went.
“We were invited down by Dave the Chef to mark the celebration of Chinese New Year”, Emma said.
“We weren’t sure how the dogs would be with people they didn’t know, but the dogs did us proud and behaved impeccably.
“The players were very helpful, they left their Chinese meal on the table, came out and helped us and posed for lots of photos with our dogs.
“We’re neighbours, so hopefully now we’ve got this relationship we will be able to pop down a bit more often with our dogs and you never know, one of your players might adopt a dog from us.”
Theme days have become a feature of the training ground ever since Dave took over as Chef in the summer and it is something he enjoys doing for the players.
“Once a month we normally do a theme day”, said Dave.
“We’ve done Wimbledon, which was good, we’ve done the Belgium Formula One Grand Prix, which was good, and I try and do it where it’s either a sporting event or a historical event or something that is poignant in that month.
“Last week was Chinese New Year and 2018 is the Year of the Dog, so I decided to cook a Chinese Stir-Fry. We got some Chinese fruit as well, some unusual shaped fruit, which put a few smiles on people’s faces and hopefully they enjoyed the lunch.
“The players were then visited by the team from the Dogs Trust Shrewsbury up the road in Roden. A lot of the players seemed to get involved and enjoy themselves, so it was a really nice opportunity for them to do something different.
"I would like to thank the Dogs Trust for coming down to the training ground and celebrating Chinese New Year with us and I hope to work with them again in the future.”
If you are interested in rehoming a dog or would like to find out more about the Dogs Trust then please visit their website https://www.dogstrust.org.uk/our-centres/shrewsbury/