Community Fund helps Sittingbourne to engage with local schools

By Paul Martin

Sittingbourne FC hope to build on their burgeoning links with local primary schools after making effective use of a community grant.

The Pitching In Isthmian League South East Division promotion hopefuls recently ran a 10-week project across seven schools in the Swale area, with sessions including football and Q&As with the club’s first-team players. It marked a significant step in the club’s community engagement, supported by a grant from the Trident Community Foundation, and vice-chairman Andrew Marjeram is keen to keep the momentum going.

“It was brilliant,” he said. “It went down really well, we had about 220 kids involved and we couldn’t have done that without the funding grant, to be honest.

“I live further into South-East London and every school is covered by a football team who go in and do these things. Sittingbourne isn’t and I’d love to be able to offer that, so this is a stepping stone to hopefully create something like that moving forward.

“I would love nothing more than getting revenue in to do it on a regular basis as it has really helped us. We had a similar grant before, which was fantastic. I would love to do it without the help of a grant but we don’t have the finances to do so. 

“We had visited one school before but not the others, so it has opened new doors for us. It is good to be able to give back and we want to do more of it.”

Since its launch in December 2020, the Trident Community Foundation, established by Isthmian League partners Pitching In, has awarded more than £700,000 to support almost 200 initiatives across the country.

Sittingbourne’s latest grant helped cover the costs of equipment and expenses for the first-teamers, who missed work to sprinkle stardust on the sessions and provide valuable insight for the children.

“We put on sessions about what makes a footballer,” Marjeram added. “They talked about diet, nutrition, mentality, mental health. We got the kids to engage, we got them to tell us and then told them our examples, so they got more involved.

“The teachers were really happy with it so hopefully it can be a platform to do it again.”

Find volunteering opportunities near you at https://pitchinginvolunteers.co.uk/