Alasdair nets big cash boost for football club

Jul 1 2009 by Andrew Weston, Wishaw Press

A SHOTTS teenager has won his local team funding to help give the club’s facilities a major shake-up.

Alasdair Robertson secured £1500 for Shotts YMCA FC after applying to Scotland in Focus – a new joint initiative between Young Scot (Scotland’s national youth information charity) and the Wrigley Company - which assists local regeneration projects developed by young people.

Shotts football ground is the first project to be awarded cash from the campaign, which calls for young Scots aged between 11 and 26 to take photos of areas in their local community which are close to their heart and could benefit from a facelift.

Applicants are invited to upload their snaps onto the campaign website – www.scotlandinfocus.org – explaining why the area is important to them and why they feel it would benefit from a grant.

All entries appear on the website and visitors vote for the entry they feel captures the spirit of the campaign and from there funds are awarded to the entries that receive the most votes.

Alasdair joined the Shotts club as a youth and stayed on after the YMCA paid for him to train to become a qualified coach.

Now 18, he is delighted his team are to benefit from the cash injection awarded this week.

“From an early age I was given lots of time and encouragement from everyone involved with Shotts YMCA football club,” he said.

“Now I want to invest that back into the club and that's why I devote so much of my spare time to helping the team.

“We have over 150 young people using our facilities every week and being awarded this money from Scotland in Focus has meant that the club will be able to landscape the football ground and that essential repair work can go ahead.”

Louise Macdonald, CEO of Young Scot, said: “Every day we hear how passionate young people are about their community.

“The Scotland in Focus project means we can help young people make a difference to the places where they live and play.

“The decision panel were really impressed with Alasdair's plans and it's brilliant that he wants to give back to his childhood football club.”

Alex MacHutchon of Wrigley added: “We were really impressed with Alasdair's commitment to the football team and his desire to see the ground improved for both young players and the community as a whole.”

New applications are currently being sought by Young Scot and all you have to do is upload your snaps onto the campaign website, explaining why the area is important to you and why you feel it would benefit from a grant.

The agency provide all young people in Scotland aged 11-26 with information, ideas and incentives to enable them to make informed decisions and choices, turn their ideas into action and take advantage of opportunities which are available throughout Scotland and in Europe.

They currently have 360,000 members across the country.