Blackpool FC Community Trust column: So proud of achievements in most difficult of years

Our BFC Sports College students have completed their initial term, which has seen 68 BTEC students and 16 Degree students engage in their education programme in a safe bubble, with full-time face-to-face delivery.

This has not had to be closed down at any point so far due to any positive Covid-19 cases.

It was very important to me that we made sure we could support these young people appropriately, whilst making sure we respected the guidance and kept everyone safe.

I was very lucky to have a team that agreed with this stance, and the staff and the students have worked really hard to follow our Covid guidance, risk assessments and procedures.

I must thank everyone for being so disciplined and focused throughout this period.

November lockdown aside, we have also been able to make sure these students have continued to represent the club in the EFL CEFA League against other Community Trusts.

And throughout the term we have been able to make sure they trained every week to fulfil their enrichment opportunities.

The staff have also been really creative in finding ways to keep students engaged.

For instance, we have had workshops with Premier League Referees, ex-players talking about their experiences and our head coach at BFC, Neil Critchley, talking the students through his professional journey and inviting every one of them to attend training and watch him work at first hand – once we get out of this Covid situation.

This week we also completed our Christmas fundraising challenge, which saw our fans, community, businesses, first- team players and staff raise an amazing £41,311, which was then matched by our club owner Simon Sadler, his family and Segantti Capital Management partners and staff.

This means an unbelievable £82,622 has been raised to help local children live happier lives.

I genuinely cannot find the words to explain my pride, gratitude and respect for our whole community in coming together to support this campaign to make sure no child goes without a gift on Christmas morning.

It’s also added a real excitement for the future, when we think how everyone came together for this cause.

We also had a great task to source so many gifts to make sure we give the children a present that will excite them next Friday.

We have worked with a number of companies and had to travel to Birmingham, Manchester and local stores to collect all the gifts.

We have also had some fantastic donations of biscuits, sweets, selection boxes, books and many little gifts to make up the treat boxes which will go with the present.

Our fans will be pleased to hear some of those treats have included BFC scarves and stationery sets for our next generation of fans.

My team have then had the unenviable task of wrapping almost 2,000 boxes for the children in BFC branded paper to make sure we make these gifts as special as possible.

We have then delivered all the gifts to each school in time for parents to collect them.

I had the pleasure of going to some of the schools myself to make the deliveries and it was a very humbling experience at each school.

I just want to take this opportunity to thank everyone again for your support and generosity.

This week sees a lot of our staff finish work for a very well earned two-week break.

The staff have worked tirelessly this year, in extremely difficult circumstances, to continue to support our local residents and do their best to help make people’s lives better, whether through delivering PHSE or PE lessons in local primary schools, mentoring in our secondary schools and local community, delivering sports sessions in areas of high antisocial behaviour, engaging young people in social action and educating young people to help them onto a positive path for the future.

We have also worked with adults on physical activity and weight management programmes, besides working with some of the most isolated residents in our town to help them engage with their community.

It fills me with great pride to lead this fantastic team, and every BFC fan and Blackpool resident should be greatly proud of their work and dedication.

To highlight this, some of the team have even volunteered to visit some of our most at risk and isolated participants on Christmas Day.

We’ll all take this opportunity to rest and recharge our batteries to come back again in 2021 and support even more.

I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe Christmas and let’s make 2021 a positive and memorable year, which hopefully includes promotion for the club and many really exciting announcements from us.

#UTMP

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