Captain TK hails fundraising fans
RA M S B O T TOM United captain Tom Kennedy has been delighted with the response to the club’s Ramsbottom vs the Rams February Fundraiser.
Throughout this month, the Rammy Community have been taking on the first team players and staff in a virtual running challenge to raise money for the Ramsbottom Pantry, the Ramsbottom War Memorial Fund and Cancer Research.
As the challenge is close to reaching its climax, the community has racked up 3950.82KM while the players and staff have registered 1837.65KM bringing the current combined total to an impressive 5788.47KM.
Kennedy has been pleased to have seen so many within the community get on board and participate in the challenge.
“The fans and the community that have got involved have been brilliant and it’s been exactly what we wanted it to be from day one where people have got structure and some competition,” said Kennedy.
“I think it’s fantastic what they are doing on a daily basis, I’m absolutely proud and delighted of Ramsbottom as a community.”
The initial challenge was to see which side could get from the bottom of the UK to the top of the UK in the quickest time.
Due to the large numbers of involvement from the community, it only took eight days for them to reach the landmark.
Therefore, a new challenge was laid down for the community to reach 5000KM before the players and staff reached the top of the UK and then they had to make their way back down to Ramsbottom and to the full back’s relief, it has made for a much closer finish this time!
The Rams skipper stated: “We had to reset the goals because the fans decided to really buy into it and in the first week hit their target.
“I think maybe it was us assuming that we’d get a certain amount of people and we had to re-set the bar and be a bit more realistic because of the amount of people that were joining in.
“Over 100 people have actually contributed from the fans and the community, which is fantastic, it has been nothing but positive from a personal perspective for them to be out and about walking or running in these times.
“Exactly what we wanted to do at the beginning has shone through and I’m proud to be a part of it and being part of an amazing community.”
Aside from the competitive spirit, the key reason for the challenge was to raise money for three fantastic causes, two of which are situated in Ramsbottom.
The Ramsbottom community has so far raised £610 through their JustGiving page, with Ramsbottom sponsors Rosebridge committing to adding £2000 to the final total.
Kennedy has spoken of the importance of including three different charities that provide different help both local and globally.
“The Charities have been the main driving point, Cancer which has probably affected every single on of us in some way around the UK at some point or another and will do in the future”, the Rams captain said.
“Then two local Charities, the Pantry which does great work around here which obviously is on the side of what Marcus
Rashford has done this year which has been absolutely incredible and then theWar Memorial, Phil (Rosebridge Sponsor) who is an ex-Army man has a big infinity with.
“So three amazing charities, which I don’t want to get lost in the fact that we’re focused on winning this but the charities are the main reason that we’re giving a little bit back so I always say the same thing if anyone’s got a couple of quid to spare go on the JustGiving page and contribute what you can.”