Appeal from community football club for help repairing clubhouse

Families support the appeal to help the Southwick Rangers clubhouse.

Southwick Rangers FC has been running for more than 10 years, with 175 children aged four to 17 signed up to the club.

The popular charitable organisation has a 15-year lease for the council-owned building, but the club needs a helping hand to make the clubhouse good as new.

Friends of Southwick Rangers chairman Kerry Stanton said: “We are all volunteers trying to make a fun and social place for children in the local community to come and have a great time whilst being active at the same time.

“It would mean so much to the children to have a nice safe clubhouse as we have children of all backgrounds and various disabilities, so to have somewhere for them to go and interact with others, while playing football which they all enjoy, would be great.”

Work to be done includes fitting donated kitchen units, re-painting on the inside and outside, and replacing the guttering. Kerry is hoping that businesses and volunteers will be willing to donate time and materials for the project.

Parent Ali Brookes said: “Southwick Rangers is a fantastic football club that is inclusive and diverse. My son Ollie is autistic and they have welcomed him with compassion and understanding.

“Over the last four years he has developed not only his football skills but also social skills and has become a integral part of his team.”

The club is happy to offer free advertising space outside the clubhouse to those who help out.

In 2013, the club received £8,500 from Adur Council’s ‘pot of gold’ fund for community projects after winning a public vote. The money was used to fit the clubhouse with new windows and doors.

Cllr Jim Funnel said he supported the appeal and that the football club was an ‘asset to the community’.

He said: “These are the sort of clubs that we need to be supporting to get people active in the community, whatever it is, in any shape of form, this is what we are looking for.”

Those wishing to help can contact Kerry on 07534908840 or visit the clubhouse on Saturdays from 9am to 1pm.