EFDN and its members celebrate World Book Day
Today is the 23rd year that there has been a World Book Day. Today children of all ages will come together to appreciate reading. The main aim of World Book Day is to encourage children to explore the enjoyment of reading books, whilst providing children with the opportunity to have a book of their own.
At EFDN we believe that football and education are the perfect combination to work in harmony to provide children with enjoyable, learning experiences. Through using the power of football, we can inspire and empower children, highlighting important messages of social inclusion and development.
Club Brugge
“De Beer and his scarf” is Club Brugge’s children’s book that not only teaches children but also teaches parents what club love is. “The book is a story about respect,” chairman Bart Verhaeghe, said. “A story for young and old that we find very valuable at Club Brugge to tell. Certainly in these turbulent football times. ”
“But much more than that, it’s a story about club love. So with a small c, “Bart Verhaeghe continued. “It’s no secret that football has a serious image problem. Racism, hooliganism, violence, … Football has the same persistent problems all over the world. ”
In addition to being a wonderful reading story for the little ones, De Beer and his scarf is actually primarily a message to the parents. The book tells the story of dad and son Beer, the mascots of Club Brugge, who go to football together for the first time. In the forest, they meet Rabbit, Little Owl, Zebra and a lot of other animals. And not coincidentally, are the mascots of other clubs. All animals wear scarves with different colors. That makes them very different, or at least they think so. Slowly and with the necessary discussions, Daddy Bear and the other animals come to realize that they have much more in common than they think. They all love football and prefer to see their own colors. And that is exactly what makes all supporters the same.
“Love for football and club colors is passed on from generation to generation,” said Bob Madou, Chief Business Officer of Club Brugge. “Certainly with the supporters of a family club such as Club Brugge. That is why we wanted to reach our supporters in their own living room instead of via a nice video or a big action in the stadium. By reading this story to children, the club wants to remind adult supporters what club love really is and that other teams are opponents, not enemies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=75&v=98U_tSrMDaw&feature=emb_title
Our member clubs have been carrying out other best practice examples on how to combine education and football together this World Book Day. Take a look below:
Blackburn Rovers
Remember the #Rovers is an event hosted by Blackburn Rovers Community Trust which is in partnership with Age UK. The event is open to all #Rovers fans who are over 50 years of age to attend and reminisce about the football club this World Book Day.
? Remember the #Rovers in partnership with @AgeUKBwD is about to get up and running with plenty of reading materials on #WorldBookDay
?⚪️ pic.twitter.com/O4Oj65iBlh
— Blackburn Rovers Community Trust (@BRFCTrust) March 5, 2020
Chelsea Foundation
World Book Day was celebrated at our Cobham training ground on Tuesday as 150 schoolchildren attended a Chelsea Foundation event full of practical and literacy sessions. The children, aged seven to nine from schools across London and Surrey, had won the opportunity to attend after taking part in a short story writing competition for schools from across the Chelsea Foundation network. More than 500 children took part in the competition, with the top five authors of the stories and their classes invited to Cobham for the event which saw them take part in education and football sessions at the club’s indoor arena.
More than 500 children entered, with the top five authors and their classes invited to the event which saw them take part in education and football sessions.
As an added bonus former Chelsea goalkeeper @Capitancarloc popped in to announce the overall winner #WorldBookDay pic.twitter.com/YjGH1GBCJX
— Chelsea Foundation (@CFCFoundation) March 5, 2020
Burnley Football Club
Working in partnership with the National Literacy Trust, and supporting the Premier League Primary Stars programme, WHSmith (bookshop) will have a pop-up bookstall at Turf Moor this Saturday before Burnley’s home match against Tottenham Hotspur. This will include World Book Day tokens being handed out to all children attending the match. Children will then be able to swap their £1 World Book Day token for one of the ’12 exclusive 2020 World Book Day books’, to take home after the match.
Charlton Athletic
Charlton Athletic have also teamed up with WHSmith as part of Wolrd Book Day to hand out 150 books to children before Charlton Athletics home match on Saturday.
Sheffield United
Today is #WorldBookDay and we're celebrating by giving away book tokens to children in Sheffield! pic.twitter.com/5YV1T8gagO
— Sheffield United Community Foundation (@CommunitySUFC) March 5, 2020
Northampton Town
Today, Northampton Town Community Trust are hosting a special World Book Day session at the PTS Academy Stadium for several Primary Schools to attend.
? Happy #WorldBookDay! Today we are hosting a special World Book Day session at the PTS Academy Stadium! We will be welcoming students from @MillwayPrimary @Year4IJS @year3ijs @SunnysideAcad and Irchester Primary! We can’t wait!! pic.twitter.com/pTijqMlLhK
— Northampton Town FC Community Trust (@NTFC_CT) March 5, 2020
On #worldbookday a timely reminder for Only Connect, a book that tells the story of Northampton Town Football Club and the difference the club makes to the community. Available now in the club store pic.twitter.com/prGjDb47z3
— Northampton Town (@ntfc) March 5, 2020
Scoring for Health
