More community chat...

Here's the Commercial & Community column from Saturday's home programme v. Lewes, in case you missed it

It’s rather fitting that a lot of hard community work over the summer by the Dulwich Hamlet Supporters Trust comes to fruition this afternoon. For over the summer they attended some fetes & festivals in the community, and collected emails from locals who had not been to Champion Hill before. As a result of their hard work many of these people will be our ‘guests’ this afternoon, taking advantage of our ‘free tickets for four people’ offer.

Hopefully they will enjoy the game and return for future games, becoming Hamlet fans in the process. The reason I say it is fitting is because our visitors this afternoon are Lewes, who are a fan-run community club, and whilst we are a long way off from this, in the last two or three years, as a Club, we have made great inroads into working with our local community, through free ticket schemes such as this.

And with our very supportive owners of our Club, Hadley Property, our next Saturday fixture in a fortnight will without a doubt be our largest crowd of the season. As mentioned in my last column, on Tuesday night, we are holding a ‘Pay What You Like’ Day, where everyone who comes is asked to pay what they wish, whether that be the usual ten pounds for adults, or the £4 concession rate, which we would love our regulars to do. This is because we still have to cover our usual matchday costs of paying players, match officials & so on. But we still anticipate making a profit after that, and Hadley have generously agreed that Dulwich Hamlet Football Club can then make a donation, making Non League Day a charity day.

We have chosen to work with Southwark Council, and will be support the Mayor’s chosen charities for his year of office, which are two local homeless charities, to which the Mayor, Cllr. Sunil Chopra will distribute all the money he raises throughout his tenure. They are The Robes Project, and here is a brief summary of their work, from their website: Our strategy is twofold: firstly we provide secure and safe temporary accommodation for people who are at risk of sleeping rough; preventing people from sleeping on the streets in the depths of winter, providing a roof over their head and a warm bed for the night. Secondly, Robes offers the stability needed to help get people back on their feet. We offer advice and support in order to try and make sure that people don’t go back to the streets, addressing key issues including accommodation, finances, health and immigration.

The other is UK Homes 4 Heroes, a Bermondsey based charity, whose laudible aims are also listed on their website: 1. To dedicate hostel style accommodation to our ex service personnel and only them. Providing a safe, clean living environment where they can feel secure and at home. 2. To help gain a permanent home through social housing, assisting through the application and bidding phases. 3. To provide counselling services for people with psychological disorders, i.e. Depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

We are also extremely pleased to be working with the footballing anti-racism group ‘Kick It Out’ as one of their chosen non-league partners on Non-League Day, promoting their ‘Season Of Action’ campaign.

The Club and the day will be also be well publicized by our Supporters Trust, who will be at the Peckham Rye Park Fete, from 12 noon, until approximately half past two, when I understand they plan to march in a colourful procession to Champion Hill for the match! So feel free to join them beforehand!

It promises to be a busy and colourful day, and as part of that why not brighten things up further by bringing, or even making, a Dulwich Hamlet flag or banner for the day. Let’s create a real carnival atmosphere that shows that anyone & everyone is welcome at Champion…well apart from any racists, who will CLEARLY get the ‘Kick It Out’ message if they ever dare to turn up!

Back to the matters for today’s match. We are extremely pleased to have THE GOWLETT public house as our match sponsors for the first time today. Based in Gowlett Road, SE15; it is just tucked away behind Goose Green and they are regular fans of Dulwich Hamlet, when work allows. It’s got a great reputation as a real ale boozer, with a family welcome, and their food menu, especially their pizza’s , are renowned. So we thank them for their support…

At home games this season we have been running a 50/50 ticket competition, where a number costs a quid, and the winner goes home with half the pot! Last Tuesday, at home to Peacehaven & Teslcombe we paid out our highest prize yet, which was £75! This was boosted by Hamlet fan Finn Roberts- Bond, who helped me sell the tickets pre-match around the ground. Thank you, Finn!
This afternoon we are actually offering TWO prizes, thanks to a generous gift from out match sponsors at THE GOWLETT, who are putting up a ‘two pizza’s & a bottle of wine’ meal at their establishment tonight. So you have not one but two very good reasons to buy a ticket this afternoon, & help the Club in the process.

On that note I’ll say ‘Good luck!’ and see you at the next home game!