The Hatters held a hugely successful Show Racism The Red Card educational event for local schoolchildren at Kenilworth Road yesterday.
Around 100 youngsters from five schools in the town – Leagrave, Chantry Academy, Linden Academy, Waulud and St Matthew’s primary schools – attended the two-hour long session in the Eric Morecambe Lounge.
Thank you @LTFC_Community, @SRTRC_England, @jamesjustin98 & @almc16 for having us & spending time with the children yesterday! An amazing and important opportunity for the children to learn about how racism in sport and every day life needs to & can be stopped! pic.twitter.com/nZnCkClkPv
— St Matthew's Primary (@ActiveStMatts) January 25, 2019
For the first hour they took part in activities led by the SRtRC team, who have toured the country for the last 23 years using football to help teach young people about what racism is, where it comes from and how we can work together to stop it from happening.
Then first team players James Justin and Alan McCormack, Luton Town Ladies forward Dionne Manning and our community ambassador Mostaque Koyes arrived for the second hour, in which they watched an insightful 20-minute video with the children, before staging a Q&A session and signing autographs before it was time to return to school.
The players then stayed on for almost an hour further to conduct interviews with The Sun newspaper and Sky Sports News, who were present to film the event as part of a documentary they are making on racism in football, in which the great work the club and our Community Trust do to help fight racism and encourage social cohesion and inclusivity in the local area will be highlighted.
"It's a pleasure to be a part of this event," said James. "The kids have learned so much and as we were sitting up there, the questions they were asking us - I'm not even sure we could think of them ourselves. They were really tricky questions! It's a credit to the people at Show Racism The Red Card. They have educated the younger generation to be better than us before them."
After the event, we received a fantastic email from Steve Goodsell, the SRtRC regional manager, who wrote: “The club and community team were superb and gave outstanding support – the best I have experienced. The players were early and watched the whole of the educational film with the young people, which rarely happens.”
Thank you JJ, Macca, Dionne and Mostaque for being on the panel, and Daniel Douglas and his wonderful team at the LTFC Community Trust for their part in the organisation and hosting on the day. You did the Hatters proud, as always!
For more info on Show Racism The Red Card, click the links below...
Website - www.theredcard.org
Email - info@theredcard.org
Facebook - facebook.com/theredcard
Twitter - @SRtRC_England
YouTube - youtube.com/showracismtheredcard
*Special thanks to Hatters fan and radio presenter Luke Gregory for recording and editing the video. You can follow Luke on Twitter - @GregoryOnAir
Great, informative afternoon @LutonTown @LTFC_Community taking part in a 'Show Racism the Red Card' event. Children learnt to challenge discrimination and that racism in any form is not acceptable. Thanks to @SRTRC_England for leading the sessions ⚽ 😀 pic.twitter.com/HFqVIt1165
— Chantry Primary Academy (@chantryprimary) January 24, 2019