At our recent Branch Meeting we approved a donation of £350 for AFC Masters to go towards developing their ‘Brew Club’ Podcast – an initiative started during the pandemic to keep players and club friends connected. You can find out more about the club and how the donation will be used below. The club are very active on social media – why not give them a follow on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter – to see what they get up to.
My name is Iain Massingham and I am the general manager of AFC Masters. We are a football club, based in Horwich near Bolton, for children and adults who have a disability. We have around 100 players aged from 4 years old right through to their 40s and beyond (myself included in that bracket). We have been running for 15 years now and focus on our three main principles of Fun, Friendship and Football.
During the pandemic we had to, understandably, stop football and up until very recently we hadn’t kicked a ball in over a year. Many of our players have been shielding and were very isolated over the 12 months so we quickly developed a programme of virtual and online activities to keep them entertained and connected with their friends. We welcomed new members to the club over this time who were going through similar circumstances and now as we start to return to the football pitch we hope to get them down to training.
One virtual activity we have been running is our podcast “Brew Club” which runs every Monday evening where we have a different guest who comes on to talk to our hosts, Eve and Mel. We have a leaning towards Mental Health and Wellbeing with the Brew Club and we have big plans to develop it as we move forwards. The funding kindly donated by your organisation would be put into enabling us to do this, and we would be more than happy to credit during the podcast itself.