Stanley’s big shirt giveaway a huge success for fifth year running

Accrington Stanley’s first team squad handed out shirts as part of their shirt giveaway to Year 3 children from Hyndburn schools at the Wham Stadium on Tuesday morning.

The annual big shirt giveaway also saw the children receive a goodie bag sponsored by Studio and North Lancs Training Group (NLTG), including a free match ticket, crayons, a lunch box and picture of the first-team squad.

Taking place for the fifth year running and back at the Wham following slightly altered plans for the 2020 event due to COVID-19, the youngsters got the chance to meet their favourite players and see the pitch up close, having their pictures taken in the Studio Family Stand.

The shirts were generously sponsored by Studio and the Official Accrington Stanley Community Trust.

Manager, John Coleman, said: “It’s always a day in the calendar that we look forward to and so do the players.

“It’s a fantastic initiative and something that has been going for five years. If we can capture the children’s imagination and get them involved in Stanley, it bodes well for the future.”

Coleman added: “The idea of giving the children a replica shirt is fantastic and it gives them an identity. For a lot of people it’s difficult to justify being able to get their child a replica top and I think this is a great gesture by Andy Holt. I hope it captures the imagination of these kids and in 10-15 years’ time they’ll be here cheering us on or even playing for us.”

Chairman and owner, Andy Holt, said: “It’s an event that I’m particularly proud of. It’s probably the best thing we do as a Club and I promise to do it every year I’m involved with the Club, it’s fantastic.”

Stanley’s most famous fan David Lloyd, otherwise known as Bumble, said: “It’s a marvellous time of the year and there’s one thing that I’m really looking forward to… and that is one day boys and girls will have that football shirt on and they’ll be representing Accrington Stanley at the Wham.”

Paul Kendrick, CEO of Studio, said: “It’s a fantastic way to get new followers into the Club from the outset, get them passionate about Accrington and we’re really happy to get involved in it.”

The Club would like to thank all the sponsors who helped make this amazing event a huge success – The Official Accrington Stanley Community Trust, Studio, North Lancs Training Group and What More UK.

Also, the Club would like to thank Scott Dawson Advertising for organising the event and preparing the goodie bags, alongside volunteers from the Official Accrington Stanley Supporters Trust.

SELRAP APPOINT SCOTT DAWSON ADVERTISING IN MAJOR PUSH ON THEIR IMPORTANT RAIL CAMPAIGN

SELRAP, the action group campaigning to reinstate just 12 miles of rail track between Colne and Skipton, are building up to a major last push to get the project over the line. A new rail corridor will be transformational – forming the North’s fourth trans-Pennine link, supporting the levelling-up of the East Lancashire and wider Northern economy.

SELRAP have appointed Burnley’s Scott Dawson Advertising to create a campaign video, showing support for the campaign from leading figures across the North. This will help in gaining more public support, and show how much the relatively small project will bring in benefits to the North.

The reinstatement of the track will connect the Airedale line, a modern and fast train service running from Leeds, into East Lancashire. Two trains will be scheduled per hour, with a new station built at Earby and a replacement station built in Colne. This will bring the Colne-Leeds journey time down to just 50 minutes, with significant benefits for students, commuting, leisure and tourism opportunities in East Lancs and the Yorkshire Dales.

Freight is another significant benefit the project will bring to the region. Additional freight trains on this route will make this a strategic freight rail corridor from coast to coast, connecting Hull with Liverpool and routes inbetween. This will significantly reduce congestion pressure on the M62, and will have a great benefit on the environment. This project will also open up other future projects, such as the building of a strategically placed freight terminal at Huncoat.

Amber Corns, PR Director at Scott Dawson Advertising said: “This is a great project and I’m looking forward to the final version. We’ve seen in Burnley how the reopening of the Todmorden Curve has brought benefits to the town being directly connected to Manchester, so I’m proud to be helping SELRAP get their project over the line.”

Peter Bryson, Chairman of SELRAP, said: “We’ve had so much support from leading figures already on our project, and 2021 is the year we will get this over the line and secure the funding. SDA had some great ideas on how to get the message across in a way that will capture people’s attention, and this will be the year we get the wheels in motion!”

More can be seen on the benefits and the progress so far on the project at the SELRAP website here: www.selrap.org.uk

SDA’s WORK ON ACCRINGTON STANLEY’S REMEMBRANCE DAY SERVICE IS SHOWN ROUND THE WORLD

Accrington Stanley FC held a moving Remembrance Day service to mark the opening of the new Memorial Garden at the Wham Stadium, a cause close to the club and supporter’s hearts. The memorial garden was a project funded by the Official Accrington Stanley Supporters Trust who raised over £30,000 to allow the build to go ahead.

To commemorate Remembrance Day, the club invited in members of the Accrington branch of the Royal British Legion. Unfortunately due to Covid-19 regulations, members of the public were not allowed to attend, so Scott Dawson Advertising were commissioned to capture the moving event on video for the club.

The club also welcomed Piper Paul Burns, who is Deputy Head at St Andrew’s Primary School in Oswaldtwistle, standard bearers and a bugler to play the Last Post to the Memorial Garden for the tribute on Sunday. Accrington Pipe Band is the oldest civilian pipe band in the United Kingdom and reputedly the world, formed in 1885. A wreath was laid by Gary De Maine on behalf of the Official Accrington Stanley Supporters’ Trust.

Following the release of the outstanding video, there was national interest in the footage from the event, which led to it being included in the Sky Sports news coverage alongside footage of the national teams paying their respects, and also Granada News.

You can watch the video here: 

If you’d like SDA to make a video for you that has global potential get in touch here