Football Fetches Further Funds

Ripley Church of England Primary School hosted a 5-a-side Football Tournament last Saturday raising an impressive £2,200 towards the school’s proposed expansion plan.

This comes following a whole host of fund raising events organised by the school bringing their total achievement to well over £30,000, in the short space of three months.

Councillor Jennifer Jordan, Deputy Mayor of Guildford officially opened the event. “It was a fun day with a real community spirit," she said and looked forward to returning to the school should it became a junior school.

With 21 teams playing between the age ranges of 4 and 44, it was a full day event, with fathers, sons, daughters and in the case of ‘Team Anonymous’ even mothers taking part!

A whole community came together on the day, demonstrating the enthusiasm the prospect of having a junior school is having upon the locals.

“It is great to be involved” said Kevin of Surrey Football Coaching Centres who sponsored the event by supplying the nets and equipment and organised play.

Robert Wilson of the Rotary Club of Ripley and Send, who gave up his day to get involved with the catering said, “The inclement weather did nothing to prevent an excellent turnout and did wonders for the takings of the BBQ. It is very heartening to see so many enthusiastic parents, children and teachers working together for one purpose. I hope we will be able to tap into the same reserves when we build the new Village Hall”.

Alongside the football was a balloon race organised by Nicola Masters, mother of a reception class pupil who herself attended Ripley School in the 1970’s. “600 plus balloons released! A fantastic time was had by the children and an amazing sum of £1220 was raised towards the schools campaign”. By Monday, confirmation had reached the school that one of those balloons had managed to get as far as Beckenham, Kent.

The winning teams were Tomos Mews, Send Utd and Little Boys Blue who all won tickets to see Woking FC play at home in January.

Ripley Infant School will be continuing their campaign in the New Year to raise the £80,000 needed to become a junior school. The fundraising team reported, “2008 will see the start of fresh fundraising ideas to clinch the final £50,000 in order to meet our target. Given the success of the last three months we have every confidence that we can do it with the help of the generous and enthusiastic community of Ripley and surrounding areas.”