Big Coat Day helps three projects

We are delighted to have delivered another successful Big Coat Day this year on Saturday 4^th December before the home game vs Whitby. Despite the game itself being called off, we still collected almost 2000 warm winter coats, 604 pairs of walking shoes and winter boots, in addition to all the new underwear, hats, gloves and scarves bought and donated by our members both in person and on the online Wishlist.

We partnered with a few organisations this year who gave our donations to those who most needed them. Dave Evans, founder and administrator of Two Brews in Manchester, ensured our coats were distributed to the homeless within four hours of collection, ready for the cold winter night on Big Coat Day itself. Dave expressed his thanks for the volume of donations received.

Hayden Lee, founder of Vulnerable Citizen Support was another recipient of our donations. He said: “This is the biggest donation we’ve ever had on a single day. The camaraderie of those administering Big Coat Day was fantastic and we loved visiting Broadhurst Park and the Food Hub. Vinny also gave us food supplies that went out the same night to those most in need. Thank you FC United!”

Hope Direct was the third partner in distributing items received this year. Despite the collection being just a few weeks after another successful collection for Afghan refugees, our fans came out in full support of our longest running community project, to support Manchester’s most vulnerable people.

Our sponsors Cresta Cars and Master Moves helped us to transport the donations to our recipients across Manchester. Derek Brocklehurst from Cresta Cars said: “We were delighted to take part in another successful Big Coat Day with Vinny and FC United. As usual, we are happy to support this event and are looking forward to our participation in this year’s Christmas Comforts campaign.”

Des Tilley of Master Moves said: “Master Moves have been involved in FC United’s Food Hub and community work for a number of years. We are glad to be associated with the great works that are taking part in the community. We are more than happy to continue this relationship and work on Christmas Comforts. We would like to express our thanks for the help Vinny has given us in our Ensemble who work tirelessly at sport participation in Cameroon. Vinny provided us with sports gear, both used and new, which is received gratefully.”

We are still accepting donations for another 2 weeks, for any supporter who was unable to make it to the Whitby game. Donations can be brought to the Food Hub during its regular hours of operation, which are:

• Monday and Thursday 10am-3pm
• Friday 8am-4pm

In the run up to Christmas, the Food Hub will also be open on Tuesday and Wednesday at varying times. Please ring the office to arrange any drop offs to the Food Hub so we can make sure somebody is in to receive your donations.

Thank you once again for your generous donations and support of Big Coat Day.