Plymouth Argyle FC, March 19th 2009
Plymouth Argyle FC hosted a Show Racism the Red Card event for local Year 5&6 school pupils which - for the third year running - was backed by Plymouth City Council
More about this event...
Show Racism the Red Card returned to the Pyramid Suite at Home Park to showcase the new SRtRC DVD and promote a strong anti-racism message with an educational session plus a Q&A featuring Argyle players Mathias Doumbe and Jim Pattison, who were taking part in the event for the second year running.
The event was introduced by Councillor Grant Monahan, Cabinet Member for Children & Young People at Plymouth City Council, with some kind words of support. This was followed with a short educational session, followed by a screening of the SRtRC DVD to an assembled audience of around 90 young people from Plymouth schools. Half way through the DVD, SRtRC stopped the film and Honorary Patron and education worker, Leroy Rosenior shared some of his experiences and thoughts with the group before the film was re-started. This strong start to the afternoon combined with the film really focused the young people’s attention on the subject and lead to some excellent content in the Q&A session that followed.
Joining Leroy, Matthias Doumbe, Jim Pattison and Cllr Monahan to complete the panel was Kevin McKenzie, who is part of the Community Services Directorate at Plymouth City Council: he spends a lot of time making sure that Asylum Seekers and Refugees do not receive racism and are welcomed in Plymouth. The panel handled the young people’s questions superbly and the best questions of the day were rewarded with SRtRC T-Shirts, match tickets for an upcoming fixture and for the overall wining question, a signed PAFC ball. The club had been extremely generous and donated 10 pairs of match tickets, five pairs went to the best questions and we were able to award spot prizes of a pair of tickets to members of the audience.
The players stayed and signed autographs on the SRtRC / Plymouth Argyle posters that all of the young people had received in their goody bags. The event attracted some good local publicity with articles appearing on the club’s website and some coverage on two local radio stations.
Show Racism the Red Card would like to thank all at Plymouth Argyle FC and Plymouth City Council, particularly Mark Rivers and the FITC Department, for all of the hard work that went in to ensuring the event was a success. SRtRC would also like to thank Leigh Redman of the FBU who came along and volunteered on the day, helping SRtRC run the event.
