It’s been a fantastic season both on and off the field for Bradford City. On the field, City were narrowly edged out in the Play Off final at Wembley by Millwall in a 1-0 defeat.
However, off the field, Bradford City alongside our partners at Provident have been making a real difference in our City through our #BantamsCommunity programme.
The idea of #BantamsCommunity is to assist and promote community organisations that can directly benefit from free tickets themselves or for the tickets to be used as prizes in raffles or quizzes at fundraising events.
With Provident’s support, we’ve issued almost 500 tickets that have been utilised by a number of different community groups and organisations that have benefitted from the tickets. One of those is Jan Winter from Canterbury Imagine, a book gifting charity initiative. Canterbury Imagine ensures that children in the Midland Road area receive a free, quality, age-appropriate book through the post every month from birth until their 5th birthday.
Jan comments “The tickets made a brilliant raffle prize for a fundraiser. Our book-gifting and literacy Charity funds a free book every month for under-5s in the Midland Road area. The money raised from the tickets will pay for books for five children for a year, thanks to the Bantams Community programme”
Bingley Congs Cricket Club utilised #BantamsCommunity and were able to raise in excess of £1,200 for their annual Race Night, as Graeme Love from Bingley Congs says “The #BantamsCommunity Tickets were used as one of the raffle prizes on our annual race night, and they played a part in helping us raise over £1,200 for our cricket club. We, as a Cricket Club, are incredibly grateful to Bradford City and Provident for making this generous donation”
Amongst others, #BantamsCommunity also helped Sir Titus Salt School raise money for Help for Heroes, during the School’s Annual Bake Off. The Bake off was organised by Titus Salt School and Sandy from the Great British Bake Off.
Sandy comments on the impact the tickets had on the pupils “The competition was close with some fabulous cakes being produced. Bradford City kindly offered four tickets as part of #BantamsCommunity for the two winning students, so they can be accompanied by a family member. The sense of community was fabulous as the all the students who took part were City fans. As for me, it’s one of the main things that I'm so very proud of after GBBO 2015 bringing together a national community and for me and Bradford City have always supported what I do and I hope we can do so much more together.”
As a Bradford business since 1880, Provident supports local communities in the city through its sponsorship programme. “It’s difficult for football clubs to grant every request they receive for tickets so we thought it would be a great idea for Provident to support local charities, schools and community groups through the #BantamsCommunity scheme” said Paul Mitchell, Sponsorship Manager at Provident.
“Using the tickets that we get as part of our sponsorship of the club in this way builds on our community programme, Good Neighbour, and helps numerous fantastic good causes achieve their objectives.”
If you know any group or individual who would benefit from #BantamsCommunity and the opportunity to come to the Northern Commercials Stadium, then please contact us on social media through Twitter, @OfficialBantams using the hash tag #BantamsCommunity.
Alternatively, please email commercial@bradfordcityfc.co.uk.