Community Sports Trust awards evening a big success
Carlisle United Football Club held its first annual Community Sports Trust awards evening on Thursday night with awards presented to deserving individuals from each of the Community outreach programmes.
Sponsored by University of Cumbria, the evening was attended by club partners, sponsors, club staff and official guests with awards given out for achievements in Futsal, Mental Health Football, Walking Football, National Citizen Service, Community to Academy Development and Ladies Football.
Rounding off the evening, team captain Danny Grainger received the Community Player of the Season award for leading his teams efforts during the post-flood clean up operation in the wake of the Storm Desmond devastation.
Sales and Marketing Director Phil King said: “The club does some fantastic work in the community and we can be guilty of not talking about that as much as we should. We felt an awards event was a good way of thanking those groups and individuals for the time, energy and dedication they give to make the work we do through our Community Sports Trust such a thriving success.
“The CST is vital to the football club. It gives the club presence in Carlisle and throughout Cumbria all year round, working with schools and community groups making a great difference to the people it works with. We are very keen to help the Trust grow in reach and depth, and being able to showcase their work at an event like this really helps.”
Sandra Booth, Pro Vice Chancellor Enterprise, Business Development and Engagement at the University of Cumbria, said: “We're very proud of our relationship with Carlisle United and we're delighted that we were able to sponsor the event. It's lovely to see our literature alongside the football club's literature with that sort of brand alignment.
“As a community university we have responsibilities for social and economic growth as well as skills development. We have almost 1,000 students who volunteer in the community and we're really proud of that as well. That’s why we are pleased to be able to lend our support to Carlisle United’ community schemes and projects.”
Community Sports Trust manager John Halpin said: “It was really pleasing to be able to get everybody together to celebrate the work done in our community projects and, I have to say, there were some very worthy winners on the night.
“A huge thank you goes to University of Cumbria for their sponsorship of the event. The partnership we have grown with them has gone from strength to strength over recent months and their assistance with our education packages has been second to none.”
Award winners 2016:
Futsal and Education Achievement – Rhys Graham
Mental Health Football Achievement – Neil Richardson
Walking Football Achievement – Alan Little
National Citizen Service Achievement – Matt McDonald
Community to Academy Development – Lewis Windle
Girls Football Achievement – Lisa Belchem
Community Player of the Season – Danny Grainger
Click HERE to view a gallery of the event.
Click HERE to watch a video of team captain Danny Grainger at the event on our YouTube channel.
