Logistics giant lends a hand!

Thanks to Eddie Stobart Logistics’ renowned transport fleet and the nationwide firm’s links with table-topping Warrington Town through the company’s chief operating officer Dave Pickering - specially made collection bins donated by the haulage giants started leaving their operational headquarters near Cantilever Park this weekend for express delivery to all 68 of the league’s clubs.

Sports Traider, unveiled as the Evo-Stik NPL’s new charity last summer, want Thursday’s launch to kick off the countdown to the biggest charity collection in the league’s history this Easter when clubs meet in the traditional double header of holiday fixtures.

Using the #Kit Amnesty to mobilise fans on social media, the charity’s volunteers are hoping fans, players and officials will soon start following in the footsteps of more than 200 students at the NPLFA, the league’s ground-breaking academy, who started collecting the unwanted kits of their friends and families before Christmas.

Forty NPLFA students are currently funded with bursaries from the charity and Martin Keech, Sports Traider’s merchandising director, said: “The youngsters gave us a great start and like the league, we are enormously grateful to Eddie Stobart for paying for all the bins and delivering them free of charge.

“With the reputation of the league’s fans for supporting good causes and now Eddie Stobart’s help, hundreds of children and young people without the means to play sport in their local communities will benefit.”

Founded in 2009 in Bedford by Lance Haggith, the 2010 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Unsung Hero winner, Sports Traider is dedicated to helping youngsters to discover and fulfil their sporting potential, whatever their background, ability or disability.

As well as a growing number of permanent collection points and recycling banks in strategic locations and links with schools and sports centres, the charity also works with local sports brands and retail outlets who are invited to donate surplus, end-of-line or seconds stock directly.

For more information on the charity's work visit: www.sportstraider.org.uk

Left to right: EVO-STIK NPL operations manager Alan Allcock, Warrington Town chairman Toby Macormac, ESL’s Dave Pickering, Wire manager Shaun Reid, Martin Keach and the NPLFA’s Sam Shaw.

Images courtesy of www.warrington-worldwide.co.uk

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