Football conference provides Mothers Helppen playground

Mothers' Aid receives a grant for a new playground, and young people create community through the Charity Cup football tournament in Randers. Organizer is the youth church Skywalk.

In Randers, young ball players translate delicious feints, screwed shots and spectacular saves into toy towers, sandboxes and swings. This happens when the youth church Skywalk from Den Evangeliske Frikirke invites you to the Charity Cup — an indoor football tournament where the profits go to an upgrade of Mothers Aid in Randers' playground.
The tournament has existed since 2012 and has a twofold purpose.
- Partly we want to create a social event for young people in Randers, where we can play together and have fun together. At the same time, we want to do something good for some who need help, explains Malene Lundager, Head of Charity Cup.

In the past, Charity Cup has sent the aid abroad -- for example, they have supported a soccer school for unaccompanied refugee children in Athens - but this year they wanted to support a local initiative.
- That is why we contacted the Voluntary Service, which has a good overview of the volunteer organizations in the city. Together with them, we found six organizations that could need a financial hand and that we could see ourselves in — that is, focused on helping young people, explains Malene Lundager.
- We wrote to the organizations asking if they had a specific need for which they lacked money. We did not want to give a subsidy to the rent, but to support a concrete project. The maternal helpers replied that they urgently needed an upgrade of the playground in connection with the “house”, which is a care and networking service for young pregnant women and young mothers, mainly aged 17-25 years. It hit something in us, and that's why the choice fell on them.

Malene Lundager is new to the head of Charity Cup, and she has been surprised by how much goodwill she has met around the local area.
- There has been a lot of support from all the sponsors that I have contacted. Most have said yes almost immediately to support with prizes and winnings for the raffle, we also have a raffle running. The more sponsors we get, the more money we can send to Mothers' Aid. Our goal is to raise DKK 10,000, and although this is not enough for a fully equipped playground, it is certainly a good subsidy for one.

Read more about Charity Cup hereto and hereto.
JL

Photos: Kenneth Merrild
Video: Christoffer Fryd/Morten Gram