Wickes award local youth team Park Tigers U7's with brand new football kit through the "Kit for Kids" community scheme.
72 children’s football clubs across England and Wales have been rewarded with new kit, thanks to a national competition by Wickes, the Official DIY Partner of the EFL. Local teams have been given the ultimate reward, with sets of brand new kit from Mitre, together with over 1,000 EFL tickets to all "Kit for Kids" winners to watch their local EFL team play.
The competition invited junior sides to share their stories with Wickes in order to be in with a chance of winning the ultimate kit giveaway, with 72 sets of brand new Mitre kit available for the lucky winners and their football team.
Wickes have now carefully selected the winning projects, and will be supporting the projects that will best help the development of the footballers of the future.
Throughout February, March, April and May, winners of the community based initiative will be presented with brand new football kit by their local Wickes store manager and a player or manager from their local EFL Club. Last week saw an excited Park Tigers U7's team presented their kit by Scunthorpe United manager, Graham Alexander, and local Wickes Store Manager, Kevin Greenley.
Ben Wright, EFL Commercial Director, said: “It is very exciting to see how the ‘Kits for Kids’ initiative has captured the imagination of junior teams nationwide, and I am confident that local communities will really benefit from this competition.
“It is testament to the working relationships between Wickes and Mitre in their roles as Official Partners of the EFL that this campaign has proved so popular and will now help inspire youngsters to enjoy playing football and become life-long fans of the game.
Matthew Gaunt, Head of Brand and Communications at Wickes said: “We are thrilled to be meeting with the Kits for Kids winners throughout the UK. It enables us to see first-hand the value of supporting youth football teams and local communities. We are committed to our involvement within football so will continue to build and grow our local involvement and support grass roots football.”
Meanwhile Iron manager Graham Alexander commented: "It brings back memories of my childhood football days, just enjoying the sport and it's where seeds are developed for professional footballers.
"It's a fantastic initiative. There's a long term benefit on a health side and a social side so it's great that the EFL and their sponsors give it their backing. It's fully supported by us as well. For a team as young as that to get all this new stuff is fantastic and it will keep their enthusiasm sky high. It was great to meet them, they were a great bunch of lads."