Young Hucknall footballers show their community spirit by sharing fundraising total with food bank

Hucknall Sports Under-8s Whites wanted to raise money for training equipment as they have to be self-funded.

The team decided to do a raffle to raise the money and the youngsters in the team then had the idea of splitting the proceeds with the food bank.

Nina Lewis, who’s husband James manages the team, along with Michael McGrath, said: "We have lots of kids from local schools who attend the training nights.

“Some of them are on the team but others just come along for the training element.

"We gave each family involved with the team 15 tickets to sell so everyone was selling to individual families and they did really well.

"Many of them sold out and came back to ask for more tickets.

"We contacted loads of local buinesses and we had prizes donated by the likes the Nabb Inn and the Arc Cinema and lots of local companies and we managed to raise £451, which was brilliant, and half of that will go to the food bank and the other half we’ll use to buy training equipment for the training team.”

Local Businesses that took part were the Arc Cinema, the Nabb Inn, Baker and Bear, Florist Boutique, Diamond Dog Grooming, KK Hair and Beauty, Barlow’s Butchers, Ian Whites Newsagents, Sauce and Brown, Marshall Volvo Nottingham, Parkside Steel, Paul Smith and Ian Williams Ltd.

Parents and Friends also helped gather multiple donations from Body Shop hampers, to hand-painted art.

Nina continued: “The prizes were all won by local people too, so it really benefited everybody.

"It was a fantastic community effort and we had the pleasure of being able to handover a donation of £225 to Yvonne Campbell on behalf of Engage Hucknall who run the local food bank.”

Yvonne commented: “I would like to thanks all those that took part in the raffle and raised money for those who are in need in Hucknall.”

The team’s sponsors Ever Ready Mix and Engage Brickwork, along with all the children and families, also thanked all the local businesses and people who donated prizes and bought tickets to help make this such a success.

Nina said: “Its given us a great source of income to invest in the team and its so important to be able to give something back to the community at such a difficult time.”