Law firm sponsoring community bus
The next generation of Exeter City footballers and coaches has been given a premier boost thanks to a three-year sponsorship deal with Ashfords solicitors.The South West-based law firm is sponsoring the Grecians’ Football in the Community (FITC) bus for the next three years. As well as providing much-needed transport help for youngsters, the bus will also be used across the whole range of the FITC’s remit, including the club’s disabled, academy and women’s teams.
Exeter City’s FITC has been a grassroots provider of football and multisport activities throughout Devon and Somerset since 1991 and its activities are focused on football and using physical activity and sports to inspire people into being active and learning how to be healthy – as well as encouraging more people to support Exeter City.
Last year alone FITC events saw more than 40,000 individual contacts made with participants, from children and adults and Jamie said the club is very grateful to Ashfords for recognising the importance of community-based programmes.
He said: “It is going to make a major difference to what we do. We have such a wide range of education and inclusion programmes and we have to pick up young people and adults to get them to different venues they might not be able to reach themselves. By being able to provide these transport facilities it will certainly improve retention numbers, which will be fantastic.”
“We also make a considerable number of journeys to one of the national futsal (a type of disciplined five-a-side) arenas where one of our education programmes play their fixtures. We are hoping supporters, too, will be able to benefit from this bus.
“A lot of sponsorship deals and money that we draw down is very often only for just one year and so Ashfords’ three-year sponsorship deal gives us significant security over the longer term and we are delighted that the firm is so keen to help make a difference to such a lot of people.”
Elizabeth Gibson, an Ashfords partner, said the law firm was very proud to be associated with Football in the Community because it genuinely offered something for everyone regardless of age, gender or means.
She said: “Having seen the amount of hard work the Football in the Community team puts in to all its programmes, we didn’t hesitate when it came to sponsoring the bus. The FITC team members are unsung heroes and Ashfords is delighted to be able to support this initiative which is closely aligned with our corporate social responsibility policy, ‘Community Matters’, one of the key themes of which is encouraging social inclusion.
“We are sure that this sponsorship opportunity will be the beginning of a very successful partnership with the club.”