Charity 'blown away' by David James' support
· Yahoo Sports
A project that sells second-hand football kits to help low-income families said it was "blown away" after support from former England footballer David James.
Peterborough-based Up The Garden Bath launched Goal2Grow in May, a project that sells donated football kits for £10 inside its Unity store to help fund the charity's other educational and community initiatives.
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The former Liverpool goalkeeper has joined the project as an ambassador and visited the store on Monday.
Dave Poulton, who co-founded the charity, said: "The Goal2Grow campaign, we launched is slowly growing. David does a football boot version called Rebooted. So we're going to add that to our shop as well to help the project grow."
"The fact that we can attract someone of David's status to support our football kit project is very exciting," he said.
The Goal2Grow project wants to "break down financial barriers" for children to get involved in football [Dave Poulton]James, who currently works as a football pundit, co-founded Football Rebooted project in 2021.
His campaign aims to support families facing financial difficulties by providing access to pre-played boots and preventing them from ending up in landfills.
Poulton said having James on board as an ambassador was "very exciting" and encouraging for the organisation.
"David has reached out and we are now going to be working together in the future," Poulton said.
"We've already applied for a donation station from David. His team is sorting that out. It should be within the next couple of weeks. And we are really gearing up. It's world cup year.
"We are very excited to have him as one of our ambassadors. We are really blown away.
"We're going to be looking at ways that we can spread Up The Garden Bath nationally.
"To have that sort of opportunity now is brilliant. It just shows how far we've come," he added.
Poulton said football-themed events in Peterborough were being planned in partnership with James to take place during the World Cup in June.
Former England footballer David James launched the Football Rebooted project in 2021 [PA Media]Up The Garden Bath has been best known for upcycling old bathtubs and using them as planters in the city's Central Park.
The organisation said its Unity store, a community shop in Queensgate that sells products from 50 small businesses, has generated nearly £1m in sales revenue since it opened in 2023.
Last year, Poulton launched a fundraiser to help secure its future as it faced a £20,000 business rates bill.
Poulton said: "All of our vendors have agreed to pay 10% of their sales every month.
"That is going to go straight towards the council to cover the business rates. The one thing we haven't yet done is clear the legacy debt of £20,000.
"We are still trying to attract sponsors. but we are hoping having David on board will help boost our profile."
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