Stringers make nod to past as they look to future

Stringers chairman Stuart Fairway said: “Sunflowers Mental Health and Well-being Community Interest Company are a non-profit, community based project covering Wealden and for a community amateur sports club such as ourselves, are the perfect fit.

“Mental health is massively important, and does not always get the attention it deserves, so when we decided to link up with a charitable company, Sunflowers were an obvious choice.

“Times have been really tough for everybody this year, and we wanted to try to raise a bit of awareness for the great work that Sunflowers do in our town and the surrounding area.

“The club has been part of the Hailsham community ourselves for 135 years, and as we head into our 136th year, we want to get back to being a real community club.”

Charlotte Brazier, MD of Sunflowers CIC, said: “We are honoured to be supported by Hailsham Town FC. This year has highlighted many struggles for our communities and it will be great to help highlight the importance of men’s mental health, which often lacks the attention it deserves.”

As part of the sponsorship, the Stringers will be sporting a new look kit thisw season which brings back the ‘quarters’ design which Hailsham teams previously wore for many years.

The Sunflowers logo will be on the front, with the Stringers offering 30 local businesses raffle tickets at £50 each for the chance to become the ‘second sponsor’ of the side, with their logo on the back of the shirts.

Fairway said; “Obviously as an amateur club we have to be very careful with our esources, especially this year given that we could not welcome spectators from mid-March ’til August, and we are still unable to offer the clubhouse to the community forevents as we usually would do, limiting our income.

"Therefore whilst we need a new kit for next season, our usual challenge to find a main sponsor would be even greater this time around, so we felt a new approach would be to do things a bit differently. We have decided to be innovative – for the 30 local businesses who buy a raffle ticket, they will be guaranteed a prize, be that the back of shirt sponsorship, an advertising banner at The Beaconsfield, a match sponsorship, a programme advert or a player sponsorship.

“By limiting the numbers, we are able to cover the costs of the kit – which will be manufactured in the UK and is a design bespoke to us –

but also ensure that we are able to support everyone who supports us”.

Local businesses can purchase a ticket for the raffle by contacting the club secretary via email – [email protected] – or on 07831 223874.