Your 50/50 ticket purchase doesn’t just give you the chance to fill your pockets with crisp tenners, it helps children like these!

Over the past few years CTSA, in conjunction with CTFC, ran a collection of football coaching sessions at local schools. Whilst these were very successful, over time we realised that we were only able to have a relatively small impact in this way, and began to search for ideas of how we could provide more support to a wider section of the community.

Earlier this season, CTSA Community Officer Joe Comper, who was working in local schools, suggested that whilst a lack of professional coaches was a barrier to involving children in sport, a far bigger problem was a lack of balls! Put simply, footballs were in short supply, easily lost and harder to replace- none of our local schools have the resources of Rockerfeller and when you’re trying to balance the cost of sports equipment against textbooks, it’s a difficult call. So we decided to do something to help, and the CTSA Balls for Schools Programme was born! We agreed that we would supply all 23 of our local primary schools with £100 worth of footballs, along with vinyl balls for the younger children, and CTFC have supported us in achieving this aim.

Subsequently, on Saturday, at the last home game of the season, we have arranged a presentation with some representatives of the local schools at 2.30 PM and will subsequently provide them with the balls and a signed shirt each. So now, when you see us all on the pitch on Saturday afternoon, you won’t think that what we’re doing is just a load of balls!

We would like to thank everyone who has purchased a 50/50 ticket, as the money we have raised from the half time draw has enabled us to donate these balls. Every penny we make from our 50/50 draw goes back into the local community and it may even be your own children who benefit from this scheme. So, when you see us selling 50/50 tickets, dig deep as you are helping your own community as well as giving yourself the chance of filling your pockets with crisp ten pound notes. Additionally, we’re all volunteers and if you’d like to help us sell at future matches, we’d be grateful for your help.

Finally, we’d like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have volunteered to sell tickets this season. Getting to the ground early and standing out in the cold isn’t always fun (although sometimes it’s an absolute joy), but on Saturday you’ll remember why you do it when you see the results. All at the CTSA are immensely grateful for your help, and when our local schools are producing the next line of Red superstars you’ll have every right to feel proud and remember that you helped that to happen.