Wycombe Wanderers v Accrington Stanley

THE CHAIRBOYS
Updates from the Sports &
Education Trust
First and foremost, a massive
WELCOME BACK to this
magnificent Adams Park Stadium
to all awesome Chairboys fans
who have missed this place over
the last 18 months or so! Fans
are the heart and soul of football,
and it really hasn’t been the same
without you!
It was hugely unfortunate for
everyone that fans had to miss
out on the majority of Wycombe
Wanderers’ first season in the
Championship. I say ‘first season’
because you only have to look
around this place to see that
improvements have been made
both on and off the field. From
marquee player signings to
stadium infrastructure, the team at
WWSET would like to congratulate
the club on the giant strides that
have been taken. Giant strides
befitting a club that deserves to
back in the second tier of English
football. There is definitely a buzz
in the air, and now that you’re
back, this is something you can’t
escape as you await kickoff against
Accrington today.
For those of you who don’t
know us, please allow us to
reintroduce ourselves. We are
Wycombe Wanderers Sports &
Education Trust (WWSET), and
we are absolutely honoured to be
the official charity of Wycombe
Wanderers Football Club. Our
aim is to extend the Wycombe
Wanderers brand throughout the
local community, and to motivate,
educate and inspire through the
power of sport.
Simply put, our focus is to be in
the heart of the community and
run activities that improve the lives
of those who engage with any of
our four key departments: Health
and Wellbeing, Education and
Employability, Social inclusion and
Cohesion, and Sports Participation.
Like so many businesses in the
UK, we are not ashamed to admit
that the Covid-19 pandemic was
really tough for us, and we had
to face many challenges in the
delivery of these activities and
projects. As most of our projects
are face-to-face with people, they
were put on hold indefinitely, most
of our fundraising activities were
cancelled and most of our staff had
to endure a period of furlough.
We are, however, one of the
very fortunate businesses who
were able to weather the storm,
although we certainly did have
to undergo something of an
evolution. In late April this year,
amid the restrictions, we were able
to tentatively restart some of our
projects when we were able to take
certain projects online and take the
necessary steps to make sessions
socially distanced and safe.
And by the end of May, we were
able to have the majority of our
courses back up and running in
some capacity. We have had to
persevere, but we got there in
the end, overseen by our Head of
WWSET, Paul Foley, who somehow
managed to keep his head whilst
all around him were losing theirs!
To give some idea of this evolution,
you need look no further than our
Health department, led by Claire
Hawes and ably assisted by Gee
Grou, who managed to move a
full program of Yoga, Indian Clubs
and Mental Health support online
via Zoom, whilst still making the
sessions engaging and beneficial.
Our Sports Participation team led
by Kirk Williams, Lewis Bloom and
Andy Homent also had stringent
government rules to follow with
regards to player safety at their
football sessions whilst also having
to procure the appropriate PPE
and sanitising equipment which
all took meticulous planning.
Our Education team, led by Mark
Heath, had similar challenges in
the schools we work with.
But we came out strong, and
continuing to roll out all summer
26 | www.WYCOMBEWANDERERS.co.uk | | WWFCOFFICIAL