How Cumbernauld Colts are showing true community spirit during coronavirus lockdown

Football action may have been thin on the ground since we all went into lockdown, but that hasn’t stopped Colts fulfilling their role as a club at the heart of the local community.

They have been involved in various activities, including collecting and delivering prescriptions to those who can’t get out and picking up and dropping off donations to a local foodbank, the Bethlehem House of Bread, based at Cornerstone House.

They’ve also been organising online fitness workouts and quizzes, a regular “Chaplain’s Blog” from club chaplain Stuart Coleman offering support to those who need it and a Just Giving page to raise funds for the foodbank and for Cash for Kids.

The programme is being co-ordinated by club development coach Chris McLaughlin, who says it’s really just an extension of their normal work engaging with the community.

He said: “We had an idea this [lockdown] was coming and as it was developing we looked in line with the stuff we usually do in the community.

“A lot of that is football-based community programmes but at the same time lots of other things go on on a regular basis, such as our [charity] sleepout and donations to foodbanks.

“We just looked at how we could tune our resources to do a bit of good while there’s no football on and people have a bit more time on their hands

“We’ve got a team of about 20 volunteers made up of players, parents, coaches and people in the community who just want to help out.

“The people we’ve been delivering to have been incredibly grateful. A lot of them are taken aback that it’s a football team that’s doing it and that it’s not just about getting players on the park on a Saturday morning or Saturday afternoon, but doing that wider community engagement.”

“Clubs in the Lowland League tend to be a first team with a youth academy with a community set-up, whereas we’re the opposite. We’re a community club with a youth academy, with a first team.”

Parents have been supportive, to the extent that even though monthly fees have been suspended a number want to keep paying.

Chris said: “We had some people who were in the fortunate position, and we appreciate that not everyone is, where they are on board with the kind of community engagement that we’re doing and their own circumstances dictated that the monthly fee was something they could still afford to pay.

“We left it open to a certain extent and said they could donate to our Just Giving page or Cash for Kids or the foodbank, or to the club if you so wish, or split it or spend the monthly fee on a bag for the foodbank and we’ll come and get it.”

Anyone interested in helping the club can contact them on [email protected] or via their social media outlets. The club is also taking part in the Donate A Ticket initiative to raise funds during the coronavirus Crisis - for more details visit www.donateaticket.com/donate/cumbernauld-colts/