THE visit of Stoke City this weekend marks a special moment for MFC Foundation.
Seasonal shirt sponsors 32Red have once again donated their front of shirt to our charitable arm in a repeat of gestures they have made in the past, helping raise thousands of pounds.
“We’re so grateful to 32Red once again,” says Head of Foundation Helena Bowman. “It is a great gesture and one that in the past has helped us so much.”
MFC Foundation are the oldest charity in the country linked to a professional football club and in November will celebrate their 25th birthday.
“We’re very proud of that. Our focus has never changed in that time,” says Helena. “We were created to serve our communities and by using the power and influence of Middlesbrough Football Club we deliver bespoke programmes providing opportunities to raise aspirations and improve life chance of the people who make up those communities.”
Named Community Club of the Year for the North East and Yorkshire last March, Boro and the Foundation were proud of their response when Covid-19 hideously changed the global landscape.
Over one million individual food items and 140,000 food parcels have been delivered throughout the region in the last 12 months, over 4,000 school breakfasts provided, 245 hours of targeted education delivery has reached some of the most vulnerable in society and 65 resources created in a free online classroom. And that just scratches the surface.
It has been a year where we were encouraged to stay apart as individuals. Through that it can be argued communities have become stronger and the Foundation has been at the very heart of that.
Every one of the match-worn shirts will be up for auction, with the funds raised donated straight to the Foundation via the website matchwornshirts.com
The auction will start from kick-off at 3pm.
*After the game, all shirts will be screened and passed through a UV process first used by Real Madrid to remove any traces of DNA and bacteria.
The process is germicidal and is also known as Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation and is applied to each shirt inside and out.