EFL Trust chairman John Nixon was at Cumwhinton School on Tuesday afternoon to watch the activities as 14 first team players got involved with the double-header Sport Relief and EFL Day of Action campaigns.
A brainchild of the EFL Trust, the Day of Action gives all 72-member clubs the opportunity to showcase some of the excellent work they do in the community on what has become a high profile day in the Football League calendar.
Speaking at the CST awards evening, he said: “I’ve been involved with the EFL Trust for a number of years now and I’m really proud of what has happened today, both with the rest of the member clubs and here with Carlisle United.
“It’s been particularly good to be at home for this one because last year I was with Bradford City to watch some of the things they were doing. I took the chance to go and watch the players at Cumwhinton School this afternoon and it was an excellent demonstration of how football links with the community.
“Credit goes to the staff at Cumwhinton School because they had so many activities planned, and the lads threw themselves into it, alongside the children. The pupils will remember their visit from the club for a long, long time to come and everybody can feel proud of what was achieved today.”
“The whole thing was capped off perfectly with the Community Sports Trust awards evening,” he added. “The winner of the Walking Football award [Bob Hope] spoke really well about how much that project had helped him to get over a difficult personal situation, and the father of the Mental Health award winner told us how his son couldn’t even come out of his room because of the severity of his autism before he got involved with the CST team at the Tuesday afternoon sessions.
“There is so much good work done by the CST with projects like this, and with the player appearances we do as a club around the county, and it’s the power of the footballers that really makes the difference.
“Luke Joyce picked up our Community Player of the Year award for the work he’s done with Jigsaw Hospice, and he said when he spoke about the award that the players get the easy bit – they just turn up – because everyone else does the organising.
“I get what he means by that, but it’s the footballers who are the real draw and who have the biggest impact when we go out into the community. As we’ve seen tonight, that can’t ever be underestimated, because it means so much to so many people when they do get to meet their heroes.”