Fans can donate cash for a football strip in the shop, which will be sent on to the Africa Appeal, rather than receiving the strip themselves.
The DASC Supporters Shop run by Marvyn Stewart continues to go from strength to strength, and another great example of the community spirit at the Club was demonstrated recently when Marvyn was approached by a Pars fan, John Mills who was looking to send football strips to Africa.
The end result is that supporters can now make a donation to the "Africa Appeal" and assist DAFC at the same time. Fans can donate cash for a football strip in the shop, which will be sent on to the Africa Appeal, rather than receiving the strip themselves. At the same time the Club also benefits, so it win-win situation for everyone.
Pars fans have "dug deep" to help the Club through adversity, but this appeal fully demonstrates the wider community spirit we have by recognising those elsewhere who are less fortunate than ourselves.John Mills explained the background to how his idea came to fruition:-
"My friend, Richie Ramsey has a sister, Patricia Doyle, who is currently out in Ethiopia. Patricia's daughter had been working out in Bangladesh, when Patricia visited her a couple of years ago, and after the visit Patricia made up her mind that she also wanted to head out to Africa to try and make a difference, however small, byhelping the locals. After some careful planning she decided that Ethiopia was the best location for her so she took a year out on sabbatical and was placed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in a medical centre called Hosaana Hospital.
"She has now got to know the locals really well and has even ended up watching the English Premiership games in a hut with about 200 locals every weekend. Recently she got the opportunity to watch her own favourite team, Newcastle play Chelsea with them all.
"As the locals are so hospitable she wanted to give something back so she got in contact with her brother, Richie and asked if he could send over some football tops for the locals. She was saying that the kids are football daft, but are wearing tops that are tatty, and sometimes these are over 20years old. She even said that she has seen the kids playing full football games with a coke bottle as a ball!
"Once I saw that Richie was looking for help, I posted on the Pars Fans website DAFC.net hoping to just even get a handful of tops. I wasn't too hopeful mainly because of the sizes I would be primarily looking for, would be kids and youths but a user called "Jjonjord" came up with the idea of donating money to Marv's shop and then Marv changing the donations into strips. This was a fantastic idea because it meant that I was able to get a lot of smaller sizes and that Marv would be able to raise even more money for the Club".
John intends to run the Africa Appeal to 24 January, before packing up the strips and sending these out to Africa, and it would be great to see some photographs of the kinds running around in Pars strips! In the first weekend £210 was raised in donations, which is a fantastic response from Pars fans.
If anyone would like to support this appeal then please pop into the DASC Supporters Shop beside the Ticket Office within East End Park
John concluded "From the money raise so far Marvyn has changed it into the following:
"What I am going to try and do now is to source some footballs, pumps and bibs to send out as well. We cannot have the kids kicking coke bottles around a pitch. We have plans to keep this going and send items to other poorer countries with these people benefitting as well as our club".
..
30 mixed Kids shirts; A selection of kids/youths shorts; 11 Pars shirts youth/adult 11 Scotland /foreign shirts; Full set of DAFC strips; 5 adult matching strips; 1 referee top (almost new); 10 foreign scarves; and 5 adult T Shirts.
Well done to John, Marvyn and everyone else who has contributed or donated to this fantastic appeal which gives a little back to those "football daft" people who are less fortunate than ourselves.
For Season 2023/2024 SPFL regulations mean that on a Saturday afternoon we have to offer a Subscription service for overseas viewers. This will either be a monthly or a yearly subscription (on a Saturday it is FOR OVERSEAS viewers only - some dates are exempt.)
https://ParsTV.co.uk
