Yesterday saw the whole club come together to present an amazing 97 club shirts, 97 boxes of chocolates, 97 children's books and 97 ticket packages to Fair Frome to distribute to people in need this Christmas in Frome.
This festive period saw the club join the national crowdfunding campaign Kitmas, to help children across the UK that are in low income situations enjoy a Christmas where they will receive a football kit they would otherwise not have received. Many children dream of having the latest football kits at Christmas, but the cost of football kits can often be prohibitive to many families, especially where other priorities are at the forefront of the families's minds. The Kitmas campaign hopes to help these children and parents in a simple way.
Our Club joined the campaign to help children in Frome benefit, something that may not have been possible from the national campaign itself and Kitmas's existing distribution partners. Working with Kitmas and Fair Frome, we set a target of 25 Frome kits to distribute. However as the 14 days progressed we were delighted to see the fans donations come in fast in support of the campaign. The total raised allowed the club to commit to a huge 97 shirts.
Following the news of the amount of shirts raised by the fan donations, the club additionally presented an adult and child ticket to our home game in order to let the families enjoy a match for free this Christmas. Following this news our players and management team contributed 97 chocolate boxes to the campaign. Finally our youth team Frome Town United contributed 97 reading books. As the club came together in our support of Frome's families.
Chairman Derek Graham was on hand to present all of the donations to Bob Ashford from Fair Frome. Bob commented:
"A huge thank you to all the Directors, Player and staff at Frome Town. And of course all the supporters who have donated to make this happen. This is a great partnership we are building with the club and I'm sure it will continue into the new year. Thank you all so very much"
Marketing & Communications Director Scott Fitzgibbon explained, "This is a huge win for the families in Frome and the club. We were quick to realise the potential that Kitmas could bring to the community. We hoped to reach 25 shirts, so to see how the supporters engaged and donated to reach 97 shirts was amazing. Then to see all parts of the club come together with Fair Frome to make 97 children in Frome's Christmas made that little bit better has been something to behold."
In a final element of the Kitmas campaign, we appreciate that we want all recipients of the shirts to feel comfortable at the ground on the 27th December. With this in mind we are asking all fans to wear their shirts or something red to the match.
Finally, a huge thank you to everyone that donated, shared or spread the word about the campaign. We are all #BA11
Next at home - Wear it Red
Wear it with Pride