Anyone who joined us at yesterday's Kit Launch at Friars Walk will have noticed that Spytty the Dog and the children's shirt which was given away as a prize had a logo for local charity Changing Minds on the front.
After it was announced that Interbet.com would be sponsoring the Newport County AFC kit for the 2018/19 Season (meaning that the children’s retail kits would include no front-of-shirt sponsor), the board were delighted to be presented with an opportunity to use this space on the shirts to promote two local children’s charities.
Ahead of Tuesday’s official 2018/19 Kit Launch, we are pleased to announce that Newport County AFC Supporters Trust have gifted the fronts of the children’s retail shirts to Changing Minds at Newport Mind and Ieuan the Lion Memorial Fund.
Director Colin Faulkner explained: “As a Board we feel it’s important to support our local community. We decided we wished to raise awareness of a couple of local charities as we did similarly a couple of years ago. We researched a few charities in the area then made the decision to support Changing Minds at Newport Mind and Ieuan the Lion Memorial Fund. These are two great charity programmes; Changing Minds provides support for children struggling with their mental wellbeing whilst Ieuan the Lion is dedicated to making memories for families that have a limited time together due to terminal illness.”
Changing Minds
Changing Minds is part of Newport Mind, which comes under the umbrella of the EFL Main Charity Partner Mind, and focuses specifically on improving the metal health of young people and children. They do fantastic work in Newport and surrounding areas and the Club is pleased and proud to support their efforts by putting their logo on the front of the 2018/19 Junior Retail Shirts.
David Hopkins from Newport Mind said: "We're delighted that Newport County AFC have chosen to support Changing Minds this year. Around 1 in 5 young people will have a mental health problem in any given year - and often, finding the right support can be a challenge. We hope that this partnership with Newport County AFC will raise more awareness of mental health issues, resulting in more young people getting the support that they need.
"We know that early intervention is especially important, and so each year Changing Minds provides hundreds of young people across Gwent a chance to talk with other young people about their worries and problems at an early stage, before they lead to more severe mental health problems."
Ieuan the Lion Memorial Fund
The Ieuan the Lion Memorial Fund logo will appear on both the Away and Third Junior retail kit for the 2018/19 season. This charity, which is based in Newport, does fantastic work in striving to provide free holidays and support for families throughout Wales who are caring for a Terminally ill Child/Young Person. We are thrilled to be raising awareness for the fantastic work they do.
Wayne Yendle from Ieuan the Lion Memorial Fund commented: "We would like to thank everyone for giving us the opportunity to promote our charity, Ieuan the Lion Memorial Fund to the local community. This is an invaluable platform to spread the word of our objective, which is to help support Terminally ill children and their families living throughout Wales, and the way we do this is to provided them with Free holidays."
There’s still time to buy your 2018/19 Season Tickets
ahead of the new season.