Premier League Kicks participants donate Christmas tree back to their community
Participants from Swansea City AFC Foundation’s Premier League Kicks programme helped choose and collect a Christmas tree from Gower Fresh Christmas Farm to donate back to their community.
Every year participants from Premier League Kicks decide upon a social action project which gives them an opportunity to help their community in whichever way they feel is beneficial.
In the run up to Christmas, the participants wanted to put a smile on people's faces by gifting a Christmas tree to the local area of Blaenymaes.
Gower Fresh Christmas Farm welcomed the Foundation to experience Santa’s Grotto, help feed the reindeers and choose a Christmas tree, which participants then helped to pack.
Participants were also surprised at the farm by Swansea City first-team players Joe Allen, Josh Key and Josh Tymon and Swansea City Women's captain Katy Hosford, who took the time to take part in a competitive game of ‘hook-a-duck’.
“It’s really encouraging for me to see them giving back to their community,” said Key.
“It’s something I wish I’d done more of as a kid, and to see them doing that at such a young age is really inspiring.
“For people my age and older generations to see how they’re helping out, especially at a time like Christmas, is really important.
“Swansea is a very special club for what they do in the community so I really admire the club and the Foundation for doing this. As players we get to take a small part in that and try to encourage others through that so I’m really happy to have been part of this.”
Paige Leadbeater has been given the opportunity to go on trips to places such as St George’s Park and Belgium as part of the Premier League Kicks programme, so she was delighted to be able to return a gift to the community as a thank you.
“The Foundation and my community have done a lot for me as I’ve grown up so it’s very important for me to give back to them sometimes,” said Leadbeater.
Jack Owen has been on his own journey through the Foundation as he found a love for playing football through Premier League Kicks.
“It always feels great to give back,” added Owen.
“They’ve done so much for me so to have an opportunity to give back to them feels amazing.”
The Christmas tree was donated to the Blaenymaes drop-in centre, with participants from the Foundation’s Blaenymaes Premier League Kicks session helping to decorate the tree.
“Once we got the tree from Gower Fresh Christmas Farm, we brought it here to Blaenymaes,” said Kiera Williams, a Premier League Kicks participant.
“We’ve been to the shops to buy Christmas decorations and then we decorated the tree.”
On behalf of the Blaenymaes drop-in centre, Elisha Hughes was grateful to receive the Christmas tree for this year’s festive season.
“We’re really thankful to the Swans Foundation and its participants for donating the Christmas tree, which we’re going to use for our community Christmas grotto,” said Williams.