NORTH EAST RUGBY GETS BOOST FROM LOCAL LOTTERY
26/04/2006

Rugby clubs across the region will soon benefit from a £10,000 donation, which will help encourage more young people to take up the sport.

Charity GoodFund has just awarded proceeds of the North East’s Postcode Lottery to the Falcons Community Foundation and their ‘Tackle Learning’ programme.

Rob Andrew, director of rugby at the Falcons, said: “We are grateful for this support as it will enable each club to work with local schools. This means hundreds of youngsters get to meet Falcons players and be enthused to attend school.”

This season, the Falcons Community Foundation worked with over 2000 young people at three rugby clubs in the region – Sunderland, Ryton and Gateshead.

Melanie Magee, the Falcons Community Foundation’s development officer, visits six adjacent schools to work with two classes of Year 6 students. This is followed up with visits of the Falcon’s coaches and some of their professional players.

Melanie said: “We can always see a massive difference in the youngsters’ motivation. In Sunderland the local club had 30 – 40 new kids interested in playing. The great thing is that at the same time the students learn more about maths, English, IT and healthy eating.”

Young players of Ryton Rugby Club, one of the beneficiaries of the programme, attended the GoodFund cheque handover at Kingston Park. They also got the opportunity to tour the facilities, meet the players and participate in a coaching session.

Andrew Crozier, 14, from St Thomas More School in Gateshead said: “We had a great trip. We met Mathew Tait and a few of the other players. I enjoy playing rugby because of the excitement and meeting new friends.”

Manuela Wendler of GoodFund added: “We chose this particular project as it covers the whole of our region and supports ground-root sports. The ‘Tackle Learning’ programme supports children’s learning, but also gives them a taste for the sport, healthy living and team spirit.”

This year’s ‘Tackle Learning’ programme will go out with a bang on 6 May, when all participating schools compete with each other at the Tag Rugby Festival at Kingston Park. They will also receive tickets to watch the Falcon’s final match of the season against Leeds at home.