12th Man Campaign Launched

By: Jonathan Spurr
Date: 06/11/2009

WE are a collective fans basis hoping to raise as much money as possible for GTFC and GTFC related interests: Supporters club, Handicap bus, FITC, Youth Team, First team and to buy shares with funding via the Supporters Trust.

This campaign is not solely about GTFC it is about Grimsby as a community. The Town has faced difficult times since the collapse of the fishing industry and in recent times many of the important job suppliers have also fallen due to the economic uncertainties of the times.

The aim is to take our club into the hearts of the people of Grimsby. The area is known for it's proud people and our three visits to Wembley in recent years have shown how supportive people can be and how proud they were to see GTFC at the Worlds most famous football stadium, the home of FOOTBALL!

As many of you are aware football has changed drastically over the past 20 years for those that follow the game and for the clubs in which they support.

Grimsby Town has a very proud history and kept it's routes close alongside the Towns Fishing history, one that many people are proud to be a part of.

As supporters of GTFC we are lucky to have a loyal supporter and also a very sensible businessman as chairman. John Fenty has done so much to keep our club alive. Now we feel it is time to show our gratitude to John as well as for the love of our club we aim to make Grimsby Town a key part of our community.

We want to create even stronger ties and links within the local communities therefore making Grimsby and surrounding areas one overall community.

The aim is to involve everyone, as there is no age barrier to those who follow football. From young children to the more mature person all have ideas and beliefs on how the beautiful game should be played.

The project will be to get into the community, organizing events to bring the community together as well as raising money for different organization which are related or work closely with GTFC. It is a long term plan and not a short term venture!

An example of the determination to raise money for good causes were Bike To The Bank where 45 Grimsby and Lincoln supporters teamed up to raise over £7000 for three cancer charities, money went to St Andrews Hospice of Grimsby, St Barnabas Hospice of Lincoln and Cancer Research UK. The Grimsby fans biked from Blundell Park to Sincil Bank during the morning before the game and Lincoln fans biked to the halfway point in which we all rode towards Lincoln with the common desire to help the fight against Cancer and to help those who suffer from the disease!.

The riders ranged in ages and everyone had a great day. Both clubs worked closely with the event organizers as did Lincolnshire police. Businesses from Both Grimsby and Lincoln showed there support with sponsorship and donation of different items which all helped the bike ride to run smoothly. Despite history between hooligans from both clubs, Lincolnshire police showed great forward thinking and their research proved to be brilliant as the day passed with no trouble and the atmosphere was one of support against Cancer as both sets of fans mingled outside and also in Lincoln City's Club bar, as a bike rider I found it to be a truly fantastic day in an atmosphere that should be enjoyed at all games!

From this we feel as fans we could help so many good causes from Charities, local community groups, schools and care homes to name a few. It also gives us the chance to show people GTFC need the backing of the Town's population even if they can't attend games, there are many ways in support can help the club to survive. We hope to support the Club by raising money for the youth team for example.

Here are some ideas for events but also we feel the opportunities are endless and the chance to create fun enjoyable schemes that would reward so many people would be to much of a great opportunity not to pursue:

1)Run football tournaments for different age groups and for both men and women. Nobody should be left out in enjoying football!

2) A GTFC history session, inviting ex GTFC legends to run talks and history sessions about GTFC from there times at the club, could go around community centre's, schools, youth clubs etc.

3) Summer beach football tournament, invite Internet teams to compete and X amount of other clubs, get the council on board, means money for Cleethorpes tourism/bars and publicity for so many organizations if we could get them on board.

4) Quiz nights, auction nights etc.

5) Set up a supporters club which we could help promote Terry and his travel group, aiming to get people to follow Town away.

6) Open days, where we set up GTFC related themes/games and again get families down making GTFC a fun/caring club to be part of.

7) The creation of 'a GTFC choir so we can get people learning some old and new songs, people meet up practice songs, get drummer involved hence singing songs which people will learn making it a close knit feeling.

8) The desire to help charities both locally and on a National scale is one that remains an important theme for the members of the committee

These are just some of the ideas we have so far but we are always looking for more new ideas too, so please feel free to join us in our Campaign.

First Meeting:

A meeting will take place after the second round of the fa cup game providing: Grimsby are still in the cup and are drawn at home. If none of these it will be after the next Saturday home game. Anyone is welcome to come along. More will be made public when details are finalised.

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