Wooden Spoon Devon Christmas Eve collection for Exeter Foundation

Christmas Eve collection

Wooden Spoon Devon are pleased to again be one of the 21 designated charities of the Exeter Foundation (Exeter Chiefs) for their 2016/17 season. Each rugby season, the Exeter Foundation selects designated charities to provide volunteer man-hours assisting with match day car parking and collecting funds at Exeter Chiefs home matches, in return for a share of the money collected.

We rely on a pool of around 75 volunteers to ensure sufficient availability for each date we are allocated throughout the season – usually about six matches. We have become quite expert at directing and parking cars and also at holding beers in the bar as we encourage generous rugby fans to part with their spare change.

This is the fifth year in a row that we have been successful in our bid to be a designated charity. It makes a meaningful contribution to our fundraising efforts each year and in the 2015/16 season that amounted to £9,050 so we welcome every match date we are offered.

Our Christmas Eve 2016 collection day gave us the opportunity to dress up and really raise the profile of Wooden Spoon at the Chief’s home match against Leicester. We had the Fun Bus on display, Spoony on the pitch at half time playing ‘over the bar’ with the Otter mascot, film clips on the big screen and lots of exposure in the match day programme – an all round success!