MORE than 1000 people will descend on Fintry on Sunday for a youth rugby event which children love and which boosts three significant charities.
Strathendrick are embarking on their third mini-rugby charity festival and more than 400 children in the P3-P7 age-group, drawn from a number of clubs in west central Scotland, including Strathendrick, West of Scotland, Lenzie, GHK, GHA, Glasgow Accies and Allan Glen’s will be taking part. Around 800 adults will be there to run the event and cheer on their offspring. Organiser Iain Somerville said: “This event will be a rugby festival rather than a tournament, so there will be no formal winners or losers . . but there will be two trophies &ndash the Charity Cup for the club which scores most tries on the day and the most sporting club award, to be voted by each participating team.” The other aim of the festival is to raise cash for three local charities: Strathcarron Hospice Robin House and The Prince and Princess of Wales’ Hospice. In 2007 the event raised about &pound4,200. Last year that sum was almost doubled to &pound8,250 and organisers hope for more bumper donations this weekend. The festival begins at 1pm with the prize-giving ceremonies around 4.30pm. Jim Stevenson, SRU President, is lending his support to the event.
Iain added: “We look forward to welcoming teams and spectators to Strathendrick on Sunday. It’s a great, fun event for the kids and rugby’s chance to put something back into part of the community that does such sterling work.”