Anything is welcome Pookie, doesn't matter if your name is on the back. However, no shirts with Bent on the back please...
all good my fried... il keep an eye on this topic or the ones that wills pring up from such a brilliant idea. let me know where and when and i can chip in
And this is why I just love this forum. Other teams are arguing about wums and how to stop them, look what our lads are doing.
I've had a look at the stuff I've accumulated, plenty of old tops, will have to think if I can let any of them go, so will probs be a new one - will also get my 12 yr old to see if he'd be willing to part with one of his that is too small for him now. I can also contribute 3 SAFC tracksuit sets (adult) if they would be any good? Who's keeping track of what we've got and who's contributing?
I'm with you on the kits mate, the Hummel and Nike shirts in particular are priceless to me! I have no bond with this seasons, it's just 'standard', although i do like the colour of the red, hence 2 of them can go in the mix! I think the response has been tremendous, so i'm going to e-mail the club tomorrow, and see if they have any interest in helping out In terms of 'keeping track' as rokerlad mentions, can all pledges be PM'ed to Ballin' as well as posted, i'd say me, but i'll be away for ten days from saturday.
Gents, this is a top notch idea, I salute you all. I lived in South Africa for 20 years – there are Kids there who have absolutely nothing...Lost their parents to aids, relocation, crime etc, - they would love to have anything related to The Beautiful Game. You could start with the basics, look at selecting some collection points, to spread the word...Churches, Schools, Sports clubs etc....it’s not that difficult. Shame, if Big_Chris was still on board, he could contact his source to get SAFC on board.....sorry, bad Joke.... But if any of you could reach out to Sir Niall, he’d support this. I’ll give my brother a call, he is connected to school, church and has a garage in Chester Le-Street – they all can be collection points. Let’s make this happen lads
I'm currently unemployed BB however i don't see this as being a permanent thing and hope to be back out there ASAP, as and when i do get back to work i'll gladly transport shirts, strips, etc, no problem. I do have contacts in Nigeria & Malabo (Equatorial Guinea) who may be able to help us out, one of them is a Geordie but a cracking lad and i reckon he would be glad to help out.
Spending a lot of time in Kenya due to my partner, i quite often attend the local matches and watch Sunderland in the local bar, which got me to thinking about generating more interest in Sunderland AFC, and helping the local community, over there the kids play in skins versus a multicoloured team of tops, no one helps, their boots if they have them are full of holes. So knowing ballin is from Nairobi, we got our heads together, all we ask is if anythings too small, or is going to be thrown out please don't pledge it to donate, we wanted to gauge the response first before going to the next stage of adopting a team, giving them a Sunderland based name, then getting the locals kitted out if possible, transport collection delivery distribution etc, will be worked and honed so it does reach the absolute needy The sole aim being to generate the Sunderland name and supporters as what we are a caring lot, big Chris the exception.
Seems we have everything in place here. The fact we have people who regularly travel to the continent is so unlikely, it makes it seem as if this idea was meant to be! As i said lads, anyone who's pledging something PM Roger and/or Ballin', but also post on the thread as it is going to the club tomorrow. As well as helping people, it'll show Niall that we are prepared to go the extra mile to help the club, the fact that a lot of the lads looking to get involved here are exiles and people who can't get to the game, how wonderful for those lads that they can maybe do something to put back into the club from afar. What a great bunch of lads we've got here.
Yeah av got some shirts that I would be prepared to give to the cause. Normally I take some with me when I go to places like Egypt, Jamaica or the Dom Republic.
Has anyone been in touch with Quinn or the SAFC site? I am sure this is something they would gladly post on the official website? Maybe the local papers as well.
I'm gonna email the club this afternoon if i get 5 minutes mate, i'm certain they'll be glad to help out *edit* I have now e-mailed the club and safc.com, i will keep you guys posted as soon as i receive a response.
Good god, how on earth could I forget to mention this? A guy called Paul, based in Naivasha (cheers for giving me his contacts Roger) has just reminded me about the Safaricom Sakata Ball Soccer Challenge, where semi and non-professional teams enter to compete, a brilliant place to start scouting a team we could support with all this! Will definately attend the Nairobi leg. Thanks to everyone who has been involved here so far!
BB - love the idea of all of this - shamefully got no spare kit, went to Oxfam at the start of this season - happy to chuck a few quid into the mix though. What might really get this off the ground would be for someone to see if the barcodes are up for a similar scheme - some healthy competition to see which team could pull the most kit/cash together and then a challenge between the 2 sides if they are local enough... Not sure how I can sort the cash over to you but if you PM me with details when necessary I am sure we can sort something out.
Noble as that is mate, i don't think exchanging cash is appropriate, but a generous offer mate When it comes to cash there's a whole can of worms to be opened, i'm sure all can see the logic.
One more thing, people. I hope this becomes a long term project, once it gets off the ground. What worries me is that after a few weeks / months, people might lose interest. I'm not asking you to contribute every month or anything, we just need to keep interest up. If we really want to make a difference here, we need to be in it for the long haul, and I plan to do just that. Will keep everybody updated from here when things get moving, and I'm already tentatively planning for how things will be organised on this end. Thanks again everyone, hope I didn't sound preachy!
