Wakefield Skywalkers shooting for 'footballathon' glory - with all funds raised going to Yorkshire Air Ambulance.
I represent a local team of Walking Football Players called 'Wakefield Skywalkers'. I've detailed more below about a charity event we're arranging and how we feel you can help us increase publicity for a very worthwhile local charity, YAA (Yorkshire Air Ambulance). This will only take a few minutes of your valuable time and I hope you enjoy the read.
Wakefield Skywalkers is the name of the 15 man squad, participating in a charity raising walking football 'footballathon' event on Saturday October 11. The venue being Wakefield Walking Football Centre, Denby Dale Road, Wakefield. The kick of time is 9am and the squad will rotate players whilst playing a number of visiting teams up to 9pm. In other words, a marathon session 12 hours of non-stop football...hence the name 'footballathon'! The team is looking to attract sponsors with all proceeds going to YAA (Yorkshire Air Ambulance).
The 15 man squad are all members of WWFC (Wakefield Walking Football Club). This is a club that was formed in 2016 with a handful of players and has grown massively since - in line with the national growing popularity of Walking Football - and currently has around 180 members. This makes it one of the UK's largest and most established Walking Football Clubs. The age demographics are largely older people, mainly in their 50s, 60s and 70s. Our oldest member is aged 81 and still playing wonderfully well!
WWFC has it's own publicly available Facebook Page with hundreds of 'hits' every week - https://www.facebook.com › WakefieldWalkingFootball
Walking football is a modified game of 5/6 a side football that slows the game down and reduces the risk of injury. It was created in 2011 by John Croot and has since become one of the UK's largest growing Sports. It's aimed at both male and females who no longer wish to or are unable to play in faster versions of the 'beautiful game'. Typically, it's popular with older people and provides both the physical benefits of regular exercise as well as promoting mental wellbeing, due to the social interaction with like minded individuals.
A more detailed explanation of Walking Football, it's benefits and how it evolved are contained on the following link: https://thesporting.blog/blog/what-is-walking-football
Unfortunately, there has been three separate instances over the years of a player suffering a heart attack whilst playing at WWFC. Thankfully, there wasn't any fatalities, all three players subsequently recovered and returned back to playing walking football again. The narrative may well have been different had the immediate support of YAA not been available. This is our way of showing our gratitude and appreciation to YAA.
Another link here details more about the valuable life saving work of YAA: https://www.yorkshireairambulance.org.uk/
Whilst the football games rest at the 'core' of the fund raising initiatives, there will also be an on site Tombola, Raffle, Cake stall plus other food available to purchase. Any additional money raised will be for the benefit of YAA. It's free entry to the event, with ample free on site parking and spectators are very much welcomed.