Sponsors Lunch

Sponsorship of 38 players and management team contributed much appreciated funds to the club.

The Kingdom Suite was packed out this Sunday for the annual sponsors lunch. Players hosted their shirt sponsors and were photographed with the strips they had sponsored. Since the club has both a home game and away game yet to play the sponsors will have to wait a few weeks before they take delivery of their shirts!

Sponsorship of 38 players and management team contributed much appreciated funds to the club. Chairman Bob Garmory thanked all the sponsors not just for their shirt sponsorship but also for the valuable ongoing support of many volunteers, many of whom were present for the lunch. In doing so he said:-

"It is very easy to forget the progress in the twelve months since we last gathered to have an event like this. In that twelve months we have done an incredible job of fixing what was wrong with Dunfermline Athletic Football Club. We still have a long way to go but we have done so much that it is easy to forget what we have done.

"For those volunteers in the room who helped the transformation of the undercroft (dressing room area under the McCathie Stand) area into our new training base, that was done and accomplished in a very short timescale. People like Stevie Vaughan volunteered to do the electrical work at no cost to the club. These are the real heroes of the club and there are so many of them that we don't get a chance to say thank you to all of the heroes who support Dunfermline Athletic Football Club such as the sponsors here in the room. So thank you on behalf of the Board and on behalf of the club for all you do and I hope that you will continue to do for this wonderful football club, thank you.

"The Centenary Club Lifeline is a financial lifeline. I do hope that it goes to 1250 members" he joked "the Board's motto is 'give us your money'!

"We are the envy of so many clubs in Scotland because of that very organisation. It is again down to volunteers. For those who have just volunteered to go on that committee, your lives will never be the same again!

"The 1885 Business Club meet this Tuesday and their guest is Lord Willie Haughey. That is the sort of speaker that the 1885 Business Club are attracting so if you have got a business and you are not a member of the 1885 Business Club all I can say is why? It is a great body to be part of.

"The Pars Supporters Trust has been mentioned and thanked on behalf of the Board for all the work that they do to draw together the various threads from the different supporters groups out there to make sure that we have proper representation from our supporters' base.

"She is not present but Marvyn Stewart with her emporium sells stuff that folk give her to the people who gave her it in the first place. She has raised over £30000 by so doing. That is a marvellous contribution to the club's well being.

"The Elizabethan Supporters Club is a shining light for other supporters clubs to get themselves organised in the way they have. Get that vibrant club atmosphere back into all the supporters clubs so we get much more commitment from our supporters to come to East End Park at the weekend to enjoy our football.

"We do enjoy coming here. It is not always easy being a Pars supporter as somebody once said to me but after fifty years I am sure that there will be more downs, more ups but at the end of the day, the one thing that I always say to myself is that I am very very lucky because I am going to be able to bring my grandson here and subject him to the same.

"Ladies and gentleman, on behalf of the Board and behalf of Dunfermline Athletic Football Club to all the sponsors present here today, can I say thank you and please tick yes that you will sponsor again next year. I look forward to seeing you all again next Saturday for our last home game of the season against Forfar. I would like to wipe that smile right off Dick Campbell's face as we cheer the Pars on next Saturday!"

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