Local schools come to educational event at PPG Canalside
- HTAFC holds show ‘Racism the Red Card’ event for local schools- First Team players Sean Scannell, Jack Payne and Elias Kachunga attend
- Head Coach David Wagner spoke to the young children
Huddersfield Town hosted a ‘Show Racism the Red Card (SRtRC)’ educational event at PPG Canalside on Thursday 19 January.
School partners Christchurch Academy, St Thomas Primary School and St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School attended on the day and together brought with them around 75 young people.
The children were surprised at the start of the event as Huddersfield Town’s Head Coach, David Wagner made a guest appearance. He spoke to the children and answered some of their questions before having pictures and signing autographs for the young fans.
Following the surprise of meeting David Wagner, the youngsters then watched a video about racism in football before Campaign Worker Ben Holman, who led the workshop, introduced the other activities that were happening throughout the day.
The workshop which is designed to help young people explore the ways in which individual’s stereotype and the dangers of stereotyping ran brilliantly thanks to the honest engagement from the young people at the event.
Before the end of the first half of the workshop, the youngsters were then joined by First Team players Jack Payne, Sean Scannell and Elias Kachunga, while ex-Town man Ken Monkou and Goalkeeping Coach Nick Colgan also joined them on the panel.
The young people from the three schools had been thinking about the questions throughout the afternoon workshop and film as they put forward some very well thought out questions.
What would you do if you were being racially abused and had no support? Why do people choose to be racist? What can people do to help stop racism?
These were just a few examples of the questions, which the panel took it in turn to answer. The former and current players recalled from their experience of racism on and off the pitch to help provide the young people with examples when answering their questions.
The answers to the questions from the panel showed positive signs for racism ending in football as the members of Town’s current First Team squad had never experienced racist abuse on or off the pitch, whereas ex-Town man Ken Monkou and Nick Colgan both spoke about times they heard it when they used to play.
The child with the best question of the day, won a signed Huddersfield Town football provided by the Club. Town’s First Team players and coaching staff also had photos and signed autographs for the excited students.
After tucking into some refreshments put on by Huddersfield Town, the youngsters took part in the ‘Show Racism the Red Card’ workshop, watching educational films and taking part in numerous activities.
To round off a brilliant afternoon, in each SRtRC card goody-bag Huddersfield Town also provided every young person in attendance a match ticket for themselves and one adult to attend the Club’s ‘Town For All’ game against Ipswich Town.
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