Young Crawley volunteers raising £1,000 for the homeless get ministerial visit

Young Crawley volunteers who want to raise £1,000 for the town's homeless have been paid a visit by the leader of the House of Commons.
By The Newsroom
Published 8th Apr 2016, 09:28 BST
Updated 8th Apr 2016, 09:41 BST

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Teenagers explained their planned fundraisers for Crawley Open house to Chris Grayling MP at Crawley Town FC’s stadium on Thursday (April 7).

The ten-strong team were to put on a ‘fun day’ and host a topless firefighters’ car wash at the stadium as part of their National Citizen Service (NCS) programme backed by the club’s Community Foundation.

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Mr Grayling, MP for Epsom & Ewell, said: “I’ve visited a number of club foundation projects before but it’s the first time I’ve seen a smaller football club supporting a NCS project which is great.

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“Running a club in the lower divisions and to still be able to do the same kind of community work [as one in the Premiership] is really encouraging.”

The volunteers, who had given up their Easter holidays to plan their fundraisers, spoke of how they bonded in a residential trip and of their compassion for the town’s rough sleepers.

Josh Meek, 17, who goes to Oriel High School and is a double world champion kickboxer, said: “I like to give, there’s quite a lot of homeless people in town, when I see them it’s sad.”

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Ertug Vanli, 17, of Ifield Community College, said his teammates had given money to the same homeless people.

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The volunteers will run fundraisers on the ‘fun day’ during the Reds’ home game against Carlisle on April 23.

Crawley firefighters are hoped to be topless for the car hose-down on April 17.

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Related topics:House of Commons