Canterbury rugby players ‘Adopt a School’

Aug 16 • General News, Mitre 10 Cup, School • 2431 Views • Comments Off on Canterbury rugby players ‘Adopt a School’

Twenty five Canterbury schools will get the opportunity to buddy up with one or two players in the Canterbury squad this ITM Cup season, under the Canterbury Rugby Football Union’s new ‘Adopt a School’ initiative.

All primary and intermediate schools with a rugby team registered through the CRFU were invited to apply for the programme, and of those schools 25 have been selected and paired up with a player.

Each school in the program will have the opportunity to:

be visited by their player three times during the season
partake in ‘Red and Black Day’ on Thursday 12 September, the winning classroom being invited to watch a Captain’s Run training session at AMI Stadium
have up to three children represent their school in the School March Past at one Canterbury home game
nominate two students to train and perform with the 2013 Canterbury Rugby Dance Academy.

Canterbury Rugby CEO Hamish Riach says this initiative is about connecting with some of the team’s youngest and biggest fans.

“This is fantastic way to engage with this important sector of our community, for the players to build lasting relationships with some of their fans, and to help encourage an interest in the sport for these young people,” Mr Riach said.

Tonight’s game between Canterbury and Taranaki at AMI Stadium will see the initiative kick off with five schools competing in a rugby-related challenge at halftime. The winning school will win $1000, kindly donated by SBS Bank, to go towards sporting equipment. This week’s schools are Riccarton Primary School, Phillipstown Primary School, Woolston Primary School, Aidenfield Christian Primary School and Halswell Primary School. Another five schools will get the opportunity at each home game.

The schools will get the first opportunity to meet their adopted player or players this Monday, with the first school visit taking place at 2pm.