Kingston Park hosts Sport Newcastle 50th anniversary launch
Kingston Park Stadium played host to Sport Newcastle last week as the charity launched a special appeal based around its 50th anniversary.
Created from the former Newcastle Upon Tyne Sports Council, Sport Newcastle are aiming to celebrate half a century of helping men women and children in realising their sporting dreams by attempting to raise £50,000, of which £20,000 will go to four key projects which exemplify the beliefs and ideals of Sport Newcastle.
With the Newcastle Rugby Foundation, which unites the Falcons Community Foundation and Newcastle Thunder Community Project, in line to be one of the beneficiaries of the charity’s efforts, the club was delighted to be able to host the launch.
Attended by sports stars past and present, representatives from local sports clubs, North East business leaders and regional media, the event provided a high profile launch of the charity’s 2017 efforts.
Patron and the architect of the Falcons Sir John Hall gave an inspiring and at times thought-provoking speech to conclude the launch of the appeal, with his passion for promoting North East sport as strong as ever as he heaped generous praise onto Sport Newcastle, and in particular Malcolm Dix.
Sir John surprised the audience by announcing that he would ‘kick off’ the fundraising effort by donating £10,000 towards the £50,000 target.
This amazingly generous offer will go towards funding our four major projects and is typical of the support Sir John has offered Sport Newcastle over many years.
Through the support from Sport Newcastle and it’s 50th Anniversary appeal, the Newcastle Rugby Foundation will expand its Deaf Rugby Programme by working in schools to raise awareness of how to offer an inclusive sporting environment for deaf children and children with hearing impairments.
The support of Sport Newcastle will allow the foundation to:
– Train and develop coaches in how to offer a more inclusive rugby environment for deaf and hearing-impaired children.
– Increase confidence and expertise of coaches through peer mentoring.
– Increase numbers of deaf and hearing-impaired children playing rugby.
– Create a resource pack for the training of staff and volunteers.
– Increase awareness of rugby clubs of the need to make improved provision to include deaf and hearing-impaired players.
Speaking at the launch, Malcolm Dix, President of Sport Newcastle, said, “We aim to raise £50,000 in 2017 to celebrate 50 years supporting North East Sport. I’m delighted to announce £20,000 will go to four key projects which exemplify the beliefs of Sport Newcastle. These are the Eagles Community Foundation, Hat-Trick, the Newcastle United Foundation and the Falcons Community Rugby Foundation.
