Canaries Charity Donation

Hitchin Town FC present £300 Charity Competitions cheque to Stevenage Haven.

The Hertfordshire FA Competitions Committee provides £300 to the finalists of their Charity Cup & Shield Competitions each year. The clubs can then donate the money to their chosen charity.

Earlier this month, last season’s Charity Cup finalist, Hitchin Town FC presented their £300 cheque to Stevenage Haven.

Vicki Askew (CEO), John Burlison (Competitions Committee Chairman) and Paddy Donovan (Competitions Committee Secretary) presented the cheque on behalf of Hertfordshire FA.

The CEO of Stevenage Haven Barbara Howard said,

"The £300 will be gratefully received and we appreciate the recognition of the work The Haven undertakes in North Hertfordshire and Stevenage. We are keen to continue to raise the profile of the charity and importantly awareness of homelessness, which can genuinely happen to anyone.

Unfortunately rough sleeping is increasing and Government figures show that this problem increased by 21% since 2015 with the Eastern England recording the third highest rise nationally. We are fortunate that we are working in partnership with 'Resolve' and NHDC in an endeavour to make a difference to those sleeping rough in North Herts and events like this help us with this area of work, so thank you."

Hitchin Town FC Club Secretary, Roy Izzard added:

We would like to thank the competitions committee of the Hertfordshire FA for this and it is no surprise that we have chosen Stevenage Haven as our nominated charity. We are working with Stevenage Haven on Non-league Day and will donate a percentage of the ‘pay what you want receipts’ to them and all monies raised will be spent on the Hitchin homeless hostel.

Hitchin Town FC Club Coach, Callum Ellis also provided an insight into how the partnership between the Club and Stevenage Haven has developed:

Earlier in the year one of Hitchin FC’s Community Coaches, Marc Campbell, hosted a football training session for players from the shelters on a Saturday morning, and then took the squad to the Canary Club for lunch before watching Hitchin Town FC in action at Top Field.

From here the project has truly kicked off, and we have recently hosted several Hitchin Town FC Staff V Hitchin Town Community FC (a combination of disability & homeless players) matches. This partnership focuses on social inclusion; it’s a project that brings the community together to and provides a brilliant footballing experience for all involved.

The club now have a regular training session at The Arena in Baldock from 12:30 - 13:30 every Saturday. Please contact callumellis4@hotmail.com if you would for more information.