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Create a brand new school football pitch published their Delivery Report!3 years ago
Delivered 2 November 2019
Impact data and claims within this report are provided by the project creator and have not been independently verified by Spacehive.
Convert a portion of school playing fields into a football pitch, usable for our teams, school staff and pupils, and local residents. Funding sought for initial capital investment.
Wanderers FC, London's oldest football club, and Virgo Fidelis School, South Norwood, are partnering to refurbish their playing fields. Currently unused for school sport, we are fundraising to complete the following tasks; - Levelling the surface so that is safe to use. If we don't do this, the field cannot be used for sports, - Mark out a full-sized pitch, - Install portable, full-sized goalposts and a full set of corner flags so that the pitch can be used for competitive matches, - Install ball-stop netting to avoid losing footballs and protect the hedgerows. Wanderers are hoping to attract commercial support from the local area, as well as contributing club funds, so we are offering sponsors pop-up advertising banners. Once complete, the school can restart their football teams, the club can hire the pitch from Virgo Fidelis, giving them much needed funds, and Wanderers will put on holiday training sessions for children, with our team of coaches volunteering their time.
What we'll deliver:
Why it's a great idea:
Wanderers were formed in 1859 but folded in 1887. Since reforming for charity in 2009, the club have never had a ground to call home. This project brings the club to a venue located close to where the teams currently train. Virgo Fidelis, like many schools, suffers from a lack of funds and their girls do not have any opportunity to play football once they reach 14 years-old. Their campus is looked after but the playing field has been neglected. Helping the two organisations solve their respective challenges is a once in a lifetime moment; Wanderers has the ability to pay for pitch hire and a desire to move to a permanent home and Virgo Fidelis has an underutilised venue and a need to maximise their facilities to support their educational provision. The benefits to the club and school are clear but Gipsy Hill / South Norwood are in 10% of the most deprived areas in England and a refurbished playing field can tackle that with accessible and affordable opportunities to play sport.
Steps to get it done:
We want to reward your support with some great incentives, exclusive to Spacehive. - Pledge £25+ and we will give you a social media shout out to our fans on Twitter (no limit), - Pledge £50+ and we will add your name to our website publicly thanking you for your generosity (no limit), - Pledge £100+ and we will invite you to attend our special test match (maximum 30 people only), - Pledge £250+ and we will give you a personalised home or away Wanderers jersey, available in men's or women's styles (first 20 people only), - Pledge £500+ and we will place an advertising banner at every home game publicising your company or charity of choice (maximum 4 people only).
Gallery
Journey
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Thanks to your support and encouragement, we will officially open our new home ground on Saturday 2nd November. Confirmed so far; - Two men's XI matches at 12pm and 2pm - Youth tournament run by our youth partner club Brixistane FC from 3pm - Match programmes and merchandise available to buy from our new MegaShed - Cash prize bingo game with up to £100 to be won - Harper Performance stall publicising the work they are doing to build football infrastructure in East Africa - Friends of Gipsy Hill stall promoting their work to raise the profile of the local area We are working on getting a few more stalls to sign up, creating a mini marketplace in a dedicated area on the playing field. If you, or someone you know, would like a free market stall to promote your business, please let me know. There are limited spaces but they are free to anyone who would like one. Raising awareness is incredibly important now. If we can get sufficient guests signed up to our Facebook event (https://www.facebook.com/events/2409539799312895/) then we can book in food and drink vendors. To help us do that, please sign up to the event and share the link as widely as you can. We are also keen to hear from anyone who might be able to donate a gazebo and/or spectator seating for the event (e.g. benches or chairs that you no longer use). Lastly, if you're able to help us publicise the event on social media, that would be great. Please share / Retweet our posts on @wanderersafc or share this image from this post. Thank you once more for all of your support and encouragement! Mark
The goals have been erected with huge thanks to several men's team players who helped us put them together. We ran 5 kids coaching sessions during the summer school holidays, which were a great experience for all involved and we loved working with a variety of different children from 7 up to 12. However, there are still several things that need to be done before we can actually host an 11-a-side match. The steps between where we are now and where we want to be are; - Bare patches need to be filled in with grass. We planted some more seed and recently had some rain so we're hoping that there has been some progress. If not, more grass seed will be spread and the patches will need more watering. - Small holes have appeared in one penalty area so we will transport soil to fill these in and pack them down with a tool of some sort... - The netting for the ball-stop netting has been mislaid by the school so, once they have discovered it, we can put the poles up. - We will lay some patio slabs to provide a simple base for where the shed will go. The installation date for the shed is still planned to be 2nd October, so no change there. - Our goal is for the pitch to host its first match on 6th October for Wanderers FC Women v South London WFC Reserves. Keep an eye on social media for more information once we have it!
Hello fans, friends, and family! The latest news about the new football pitch is that the top soil dressing was delivered last Friday and spread out, filling in the hollows and dips, today. There is some soil left to top up any of the newly laid stuff that might sink a little, especially as the hot weather opens up any cracks. The next task is for the grounds repair team to let the seed grow before commencing with weed removal. So we hope for rain and sunshine over the next few weeks and expect to be able to instruct the site team to mark out the pitch in 6-12 weeks time, so, if everything goes to plan, we might be able to kick a ball on the new pitch around the 10th of August! For the club, we will be hoping to work with more local people and organisations to ensure the site can be used to its maximum potential and that the message of Wanderers FC is spread as far and wide as the dressing! We want to recruit more players for the coming season, expand into our areas of provision - our new Legends team plays its first official match this coming Sunday - and create a new fanbase. Your continued support and commitment is truly appreciated.
Good evening Pledgers! It's been a little while since we posted an update but now our football season is drawing to a close, we are focusing on implementing the first steps in establishing our new home ground. First thing we need to do is agree on a date with the grounds maintenance crew to deliver the 20 tonnes of soil - this is no mean feat and will require some serious hard work. A truck will have the park up in the grounds of the school and, as the access gate to the sports field is likely to be too narrow for the truck to drive directly onto it, a mini JCB or a crew armed with wheelbarrows and shovels will be needed. Their job will be to fill in the holes and hollows across the playing surface. Once that's done, the next task is to flatten it down, dump another layer on top, and then seed the patches. Nature takes its course with some rain and sunshine and the grass will root and flourish, we hope. When the date has been set we hope to share with you some lovely photos so stay tuned!
Thank you to everyone who has supported our crowdfunding campaign - we have achieved our fundraising goal! That means that we can convert a portion of the Virgo Fidelis playing fields into a football pitch. But the great news doesn't stop there... We are now in the overfunding stage and have raised an additional £1200. Plus, a pledge from Virgo Fidelis of £1000 needs to be added to the total... PLUS, a pledge from Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood counciller Stephen Mann, from his ward budget, of a further £1000 should be added later this month... PLUS, we hope to have successfully attracted further investment from the Football Foundation... We have just two weeks left to get up to our stretch target, which will deliver additional facilities to the venue and ensure more people can play in a safe and beautiful environment. If we can ask one last thing from our amazing pledgers before Christmas, it is to share the page one last time and help us be 100% sure we can get to our final total. Lastly, details of the project will continue to be shared here but, if you'd like to follow Wanderers too, please follow us on social media - we are on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter as @wanderersafc
Whoop, 70 people have pledged since fundraising began!
Brilliant news, thanks everyone!
How will the money be spent?Total £6,439
Costs Breakdown
This shows how money raised for the project will be spent. These costs have been confirmed by the project's Delivery Manager and verified.
Overfunding
This project is enabled for overfunding. If the project hits its funding goal before the end of the campaign period, any extra funds raised will be spent (in order of priority) on:
Total £6,439
Our Volunteer List
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VolunteerThe original Wanderers existed from 1859 to 1887 and can be credited with contributing to the foundation of the FA Cup, the Football Association, and international football. London's oldest club was formed by brothers Charles & John Alcock. The club played friendly matches for 4 years but were so highly regarded that they were invited to the inaugural meeting of the FA in 1863.
The club's heyday saw them lift the first FA Cup Final in 1872, retain it in 1873, and win it three times in a row between 1876 and 1878 - a feat only equalled once ever since.
Sadly, with the advent of professionalism and the introduction of 'Old Boys' teams, the best players headed north to earn a living or joined their alma mater. This lack of players meant that Wanderers ceased to exist in 1887.
150 years after they were formed, the club was reborn with the support of the Alcock family to raise money for good causes. We started with a Wednesday night kickabout and three friendly matches. Then we entered teams in the Surrey South Eastern Combination, sixteen leagues below the Premier League, and secured three promotions in three years. Our aim is to return to the FA Cup by 2031-32 and we need roughly four more promotions to do it.
2019 marks the 10th anniversary of the club's reformation and our 160th anniversary. We now have two Men's XIs, a Women's XI, partner clubs providing an under-21s team in London and under-13s and under-15s teams in Ghana, and a team of six qualified coaches and numerous eager volunteers. We have around 300 members and run a lively social calendar for them, including an annual overseas tour. The weekly kickabout is still a key part of the club's ethos, offering affordable and accessible football to all and donate our profits to charity.
Project Owner: Wanderers Football Club The Project Owner takes legal responsibility for receiving and spending the funds raised and ensuring the project is delivered.
Contractor: Harding Ede Groundcare Ltd. The team responsible for building or installing the project.
