Head of Education at the Academy of Light, Don Peattie, talks about how the Under 12s team were joined by first team players and the city's African-Caribbean Community Association to celebrate multiculturalism.
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00 Okay then Don, if you can tell me a bit about the event which the academy players took part in last week?
00:06 Yeah, the event took place last Thursday at the Academy of Light in our indoor barn.
00:11 So we invited the local African Caribbean Community Association based on Hilton Road across for an event.
00:18 And we were pleasantly surprised, we got I would think between 40 and 50 boys and girls as well.
00:26 We got some of the first team lads along to join in and to show an interest.
00:31 And three of the professional women took a coaching session with some of the girls who were there.
00:36 And the whole idea was really to try and raise some money for the local association.
00:41 The Saturday, the Norwich game, some of the players wore some warm up t-shirts
00:46 and some of the players are designed around Walter Tull who was a professional footballer in the early 1900s.
00:53 He was of Caribbean heritage but he also became one of the first black serving officers in the army.
00:58 So we're going to auction those shirts on the website and hopefully raise a bit of money for the association.
01:04 It was actually the association themselves who suggested any monies that would be raised would maybe go towards them
01:10 being able to set up a team or indeed some activities for the boys and girls who were part of their association.
01:17 Afterwards we had a, it was really a special occasion because afterwards we had some real authentic Caribbean food
01:24 which was gone within half an hour.
01:27 Catered for about 40 to 50 and it was gone within half an hour.
01:31 I think the lads really enjoyed that.
01:32 They found it a bit hot and spicy but it was good fun.
01:35 And how important is it to use the power of the football club to promote things like multiculturalism and diversity?
01:41 It's very important because as you know the club reaches far and wide beyond the city, well into County Durham.
01:48 Has a massive audience not just on social media and on all the different networks, television, radio etc.
01:55 But as you know we get probably averaging 40,000 people a week now back in the Championship
02:01 and it's such a massive part of life in the North East and it's vitally important.
02:06 As you will know we have players who do appearances, they go out and help local charities, organisations, visit schools.
02:12 That's the foundation of life as well so both the club and the foundation are massively important in that respect.