Community Update for March 2008

City's Community Ambassador Jeremy Goss writes: Firstly, I would like to congratulate everyone connected with NCFC for their outstanding contribution in helping the Club win the Championship Family Club of the Year Award. This is a fantastic achievement and reflects totally on the hard work put in from all the Club's departments on a day-to-day basis. It also proves that the Club's community delivery partners such as FITC, Study Support Centre, SoccerPM!, Fair Play Scheme and Canaries for the Community operate to a very high and professional standard. Well done again to everyone

Here are few events/functions, which, I and the Club have been involved in recently.

England Schools F.A. Cup Draw
Norwich City were kindly asked recently to be part of the official draw for the ESFA U13's Schools Cup. I was delighted to travel to London for the draw and meet up with Mike Spinks who is the National Competitions Manager for the ESFA as well as other VIP's including the great Sir Trevor Brooking and Ed Balls who is the Minister for Schools and Education. Ed is a big NCFC fan and will be coming to a match at Carrow Road soon, which, will include a short interview in the Gunn Club.

CUP DRAW - Goss with Ed Balls and Trevor Brooking

Glenn Roeder visits the Study Support Centre
Children from Old Catton Junior School had the exciting experience of meeting NCFC manager Glenn Roeder recently when he paid a visit to the Study Centre here at Carrow Road. The children attended the Centre each Thursday evening to improve their numeracy, literacy and ICT skills and were given an extra treat by obtaining an autograph and having their photo taken with the City boss.

STUDY SUPPORT CENTRE - Glenn Roeder visits

Canary Experience - Train with the Stars
Two training sessions took place recently to complete this years special Canary Experience. Fans of NCFC came along to Colney Training Centre to take part in this special day, which, included a training session, three-course lunch and ground tour. My thanks go to Rob Whittle who put in a lot of work organising the two days and made sure the participants all had a great day.

Fair Play Conference
This years Fair Play conference took place at Carrow Road and proved to be yet another big success. Cherry Crawley, the Head from Flegg High School, hosted the day, which, saw presentations from 5 different local schools relating to peer support training and anti-bulling.

FAIR PLAY - Darel Russell at Flegg High School

Ground Tours
Tours of Carrow Road are always popular and I was happy to conduct 3 tours in the last month for 3 special organisations - Royal Anglian Regiment, Royal Air Force and Re-Think Bridges who are based here in Norwich.

Study Support Centre Playing For Success
Ross Watson has completed the 10-week courses for 8 different local schools. Each school had a presentation evening at Carrow Road where the pupils received certificates and First Team match tickets along with other NCFC related gifts for completing the course.

Playing For Success Conference
Keith Granger hosted this years conference which saw over 100 people attend the annual celebration of pupils Building on Success project. There were many workshops to attend and with NCFC playing a vital role in the day Steven Arnold came along hand out certificates.

Sprowston Community High School
Pupils at Sprowston Community High School were in the very lucky position of being able to interview 3 players from the Club. They also filmed the Q&A sessions, which will be put onto a DVD that I can use for future school visits. The players who took part were Darren Huckerby, Michael Spillane and Kris Renton. My thanks go to the players for their commitment to the local community.

HIGH SCHOOL - Players visit Sprowston Community

Get Safe for Summer
On June 4, 2008 a Get Safe for Summer event will be held in Great Yarmouth. The day will highlight the importance of staying safe on our beaches through the summer months. Local and national press/TV will be there as well as VIP guests. The Club will have FITC and myself supporting this important event.

Holiday Inn Norwich City
I was recently lucky enough to represent NCFC in judging a 'name an executive room' competition organised by the Holiday Inn. Children from Halesworth Middle School who were on a land development project in the Study Centre were invited by the Holiday Inn to think of names for the hotel's executive rooms. The names had to be related to Norwich or NCFC and the 4 winning names were, The Canary, The Nest, Weavers (relating to how the Canaries got its name) and Sweet Dijon (relating to Norwich being famous for its mustard).

COMPETITION - Name an Executive Room

Balloons for Hearts Charity Night
The Lord Mayor of Norwich Roy Blower invited myself to represent NCFC in a bowling event to help raise money for his chosen charity. The event saw some 20 local businesses contribute to a great night that raised over £2,500 towards 'Balloons for Hearts'.

Meningitis Trust
Another charity event that the Club participated in was a Meningitis Fundraising event held in Norwich. Former NCFC employee, Amy Greengrass, is the Community Development Officer for the trust and organised the days activities that included the auctioning of a signed NCFC shirt. The day raised over £1,000.

FITC
'Gifted and Talented' students from various local schools paid a visit to Carrow Road recently along with Easton College representatives to listen to a presentation conducted by Dan Goffin from FITC as well as listening to myself talk about the Club. The reason for coming to Carrow Road, was to enable the students to complete an assignment based around understanding how and why people participate in sport, knowing how the sport industry is funded and also to act as a day of work experience.

'GIFTED AND TALENTED' - FITC and NCFC insight

The students thoroughly enjoyed the day and found it insightful as to how FITC and NCFC operate and act to increase participation. This was great example of how NCFC play their part in having a positive impact on youngsters growing up within our community. Well done to Dan who put on an excellent presentation.

Sport Relief
St. Williams Middle School staged a 1 mile Sport Relief fun run for all their pupils recently to help raise funds for charity. The Club was represented by both myself and James Roberts from the Study Support Centre who did well in organising the day and keeping control of the 500 children who took part.

SPORT RELIEF - St. Williams Middle School