Chapeltown Juniors FC raise funds for Barcelona football tour

Chapeltown Juniors FC was founded in 2002 by Lutel James & Will Bowler. This is part of the CFYDC Charity which provides activities and projects by socialising through sports and exercise to over 1800 children from the ages of 5 to 18. All projects by CFYDC aim to support the community regardless of ability or disability.

Chapeltown Juniors U10's have been together as a team for 4 years. Turning 10 is a milestone for any child and we want to make a memory which will last a lifetime. We decided to start fundraising in June 2024 to take our team to Barcelona. We want to make as many memories for the boys as possible with a price tag that a parent didn't have to worry about.

We decided to fundraise to take 14 children and 14 adults to Salou on a 5-night tour of Barcelona playing some of the best local teams and enjoying the best culture.

They will be playing football, trained by a Barcelona coach, experiencing the Espanyol Stadium and live game Espanyol v Las Palmas. This will be the first time some children have experienced travelling on a plane let alone the sites of Barcelona.

In May 2024, the boys football coach had to return to his native country Brazil, to care for his parents. As a surprise for the boys we also wanted to incorporate the cost of flying Rafael from Brazil to Barcelona to coach the boys on this amazing trip.

Our fundraising efforts started in June 2024 with a huge amount of £23,210.30 as the goal. We have endured 180 teams at a Chapeltown Gala, washed cars in the basking sun, cooked burgers from morning until night, ran tuck shops at Prince Philip Centre every weekend, done bag packing at supermarkets, arranged bucket collections at sporting events, got fantastic raffle prizes, danced the night away doing Rock & Roll Bingo, sponsored Walk at Whernside Peak,held car boot sales and done football cards and sweepstakes all to get us on the plane!

We are beyond proud to say we have reached this target by January 2025 after working our socks off to do something that no other team within Chapeltown Juniors FC have done in 23 years.

This is something we want to shout from the rooftops as we are immensely proud of the heritage of Chapeltown Juniors FC and proud of what the parents of the U10's have achieved in such a short period of time for the memories of the children.

We still need a small amount of support from the wider community if anyone is able to assist with the following:

Sponsorship for a kit for the boys to wear in Barcelona and tracksuit to travel in.

Coach transfer from Prince Philip Centre, Leeds to Manchester Airport and back.

If you can feature these amazing efforts in an article or know of any companies to assist with the above support please feel free to come back to me by return email or contact Sue - 07769 600807 or Charli - 07581 426570.

Chapeltown Youth Development Centre www.cfydc.org.uk

Kindest regards

Sue Gumbs & Charli Marshall