The first edition of The Come Together Football Festival in aid of The Inspire Foundation, took place last Sunday 3rd April at Sliema Wanderers Sports complex. The festival saw 300 players hailing from 11 different nurseries, coming together and raising a total of €1070 in aid of Inspire.
“The football festival was a great success,” explained Vince Galea, Fundraising Executive at The Inspire Foundation, “not only because so much money was raised for such a good cause but also because, thanks to the collaboration of Sliema Wanderers FC Nursery and, the guidance of technical director Mr Stephen Azzopardi, so many children, aged 7 and 8, had a great time, learnt a lot about team work, and enjoyed the game of football, all in aid of charity.”
The participating nurseries were Sliema Wanderers, Tarxien Rainbows, Melita FC, Floriana FC, Hamrun Spartans, Swieqi United, Paola Hibs, Zejtun Corinthians, Marsaxlokk FC, Zebbug Rangers, Qormi. The Come Together Football Festival was generously supported by TeamSport, Kristal and MFA Grassroots Department.
Inspire believes that everyone has a right to equality and inclusion. Its mission is to try to help everyone with a disability achieve this, by providing individuals and their families with educational, therapeutic and leisure services. Today, Inspire helps over 1000 individuals with various disabilities ranging from Down Syndrome, Autism, Cerebral Palsy and others.
Stephen Azzopardi, Technical Director – Sliema Wanderers FC, explained how “the Come Together Football Festival gave the Sliema Wanderers Football Club Nursery the opportunity to host and co-organise an event intended to raise funds and create public awareness in aid of the Inspire Foundation.” Mr. Azzopardi added that being part of this event “was indeed a pleasure and as a result, our coaches and players were able to offer their time, energy and talent to help these children with a disability. This is not only part of our social responsibility, it also enables us to meet our aspirations to provide constant support to those less fortunate and to organisations providing them with services and respite. We strongly endorse the work done by Inspire to provide educational, therapeutic and leisure activities so that the children attain equality and inclusion in society, and we hope to be part of more such events in the future.”