Rochdale AFC donates £1,000 worth of toys to Christmas toy appeal

(left to right) Tolaji Bola, Eoghan O’Connell, Jack Northover, Jimmy McNulty, Alex Newby and Haydon Roberts

Rochdale AFC has donated nearly £1,000 worth of toys to this year’s Rochdale Council Christmas toy appeal.

The players and directors have donated nearly £1,000 worth of toys, including art sets, balls, books, cars, dolls, games, scooters and soft toys to this extremely worthy cause.

The appeal, organised by Rochdale Borough Council's staff-run 'Giving Back' charity, collects gifts from local residents and makes sure they reach the borough's children in time for Christmas.

Captain Eoghan O’Connell said: “We know this year has been tough on a lot of people across Rochdale, so it was very important to us as a group of players and as a club to give something back to the local community, especially this year.

“As the town’s local football club, we wanted to do our bit to help make sure that every child in the borough has a present to open on Christmas Day.

“We hope our donation of toys, along with the generosity of thousands of others across Rochdale, will go a long way to ensuring that.”

David Bottomley, Dale Chief Executive, added: “It sometimes takes something awful like the Covid pandemic to remind us all how vitally important the community is to us at RAFC.

“This will be the same for all football clubs across the UK. Donating to these toy appeals is our way of trying to help in the borough that is so important to us.”

The club has also donated toys to the Whitworth ‘One Community Toy Appeal’. This aims to deliver a toy to each of the 500 primary school children in the area.