THE King Island football juniors will soon be boarding a flight for their own “footy trip” to see the AFL up close in Melbourne.
Stacy Martin, who has has coached juniors for the past three years said that he wanted to reward the lads for the effort that they have put in over the past couple of years and he wanted it to be something special.
“The Currie and the North football juniors have been combined for the last couple of years and we decided to take them away on a football trip, to go off island and see an AFL football match in Melbourne.
“We’re heading away on August 11 to see Collingwood v Geelong on Friday night and Carlton v Melbourne on Saturday night.
“On Saturday morning we will be at Richmond to watch the Tigers train, see the football players close up and look at their facilities as well.
“The Friday night game is already sold out and they say 90,000 will be there, and Saturday’s game is around 80,000 tickets sold and to just experience that number in a stadium and be part of it, will be memorable.
“I wanted to do something special for the lads and build some memories and do a few things that they’ll probably never forget. We always remember our footy trips from when we were young, even when we’re old,” Stacy said.
To take a group off island is not cheap. There are return airfares, accommodation, transport, AFL tickets and more, so fundraising was the solution.
Last weekend was the car wash in Currie, bacon and egg roll sales and the previous weekend raised funds through sales of chopped wood.
There have been ongoing raffles for dressed lamb and goods.
“The idea behind doing the fundraising was that we wanted the players to chip in for the trip, so they’re not just receiving it… so they’re contributing and putting in.
“They’ve been running raffles. We had a woodchop two weekends ago, and we had the car wash last weekend, and the teams did the work. We’re also sold egg and bacon rolls out of the King Island Bakery, and three lads cooked them,” Stacy said on King Island Radio.
“Parents are helping by contributing and amount per child, as we were never going to be able to raise the full amount.
“We are fundraising to subsidise the cost. When we get a total, we’ll sit down as a group and see where we are financially and see where the shortfall is.
“There were two raffles running. One was a dressed lamb, donated by Carl and Abby Lewis and King Island Motorcycles, ran a raffle with all different sorts of prizes.
“The island community is wonderful’” Stacey said.
“These kids are our future. People help in any way that they can, even if it’s just bringing their cars in to get washed.
“We’ve had a few people make donations and everyone was keen to buy a raffle ticket. The wood that we cut was already presold before we before we even cut a log.
“We need to thank Adam and Anna Hely King Island Car Rental, the King Island Bakery and the Hamer family, Tim and Tegan Hennessy, yard and tree specialists, the Curry Football Club and Netball Club, the North Football Club and Netball Club, the Poulson family who have donated lambs as well, Janine Jones and Grant Lee, Eastern Line Shipping, Bronzewing Villas, Numb Co., Hobart Power Sport, King Island Motorcycles, and all the mums and dads of the of the lads, who have all chipped in and done their bit, to make this happen.”