Junior footballers clean up on return
FOOTBALL Gold Coast walks into a bar … or a distillery as a matter of fact.
It sounds like the set-up to an awful joke but in reality, it’s the reason why Gold Coast football juniors are set to return to the pitch amid a global pandemic.
Like most in the hospitality industry, Miami-based Granddad Jack’s Craft Distillery was hit hard by strict hospitality restrictions and so decided to start producing hand sanitiser using its gin by-product.
At one point selling hundreds of litres a day, demand quickly subsided once stores began to replenish with overseas stock, leaving Granddad Jack’s with litres of unpurchased sanitiser.
A few weeks ago, Granddad Jack’s owner Dave Ridden was chatting to staff member Di Josipovic whose son Joe was about to return to football training with Magic United.
After receiving so much support from the Gold Coast community, Ridden and his team decided it was time to give back.
“It was the perfect storm really, kids needed to get back to sport and our community has been hit hard and there are probably parents of kids out there who don’t have the money for their kids to start playing again,” Ridden said.
“The Gold Coast community has been fantastic to us since we opened and we wouldn’t be around today if it weren’t for their support.
“It will be awesome to see people using it but we’re also very lucky to be in a position to give stuff away during this time.”
As part of the deal, each Football Gold Coast-affiliated club will be eligible to receive a free carton of six 500ml bottles of the Granddad Jack’s Hand Sanitiser.
Ridden, a football fan by his own admission, said his brand was humbled to play a small role in juniors returning to community sport.
“In the hospitality game, you get home pretty late at night and can’t get to sleep straight away so I’m usually up watching football games and replays,” he said.
“I love watching a good game of football and listening to a heap of podcasts by football players around the world so I’m pretty passionate about the game.”