OLYMPIC medallist Ed Clancy is to become a trustee of Huddersfield Town’s community charity.
Cyclist Ed, who won a gold and bronze at London 2012, has signed up for the Huddersfield Town Foundation.
Town fan Ed, who was brought up in Denby Dale, Upperthong and Ingbirchworth, was the special guest at Town’s home game with Burnley in August.
The 27-year-old will now take a pivotal role in the foundation which aims to help improve the quality of life for young people across Huddersfield and the West Yorkshire region.
He said: “Huddersfield is an area close to my heart and I’m delighted to be a part of a charity that aims to make a tangible difference in our community to the people that need it most.
“Obviously I’m involved in sport and the London 2012 Olympics have really shown everyone what a positive influence sport can have on the country.
“Huddersfield Town is a big influence in our community and hopefully we can harness the power of that brand to make a big difference in what is a very diverse community.”
One of the first ventures for the foundation is ‘Early Kick-off’, a scheme providing free breakfasts for 250 youngsters.
The foundation, a registered charity, is the vision of Town chairman Dean Hoyle and is aimed at helping underprivileged young people.
Mr Hoyle said: “The football club has always tried to engage with its local area through initiatives such as its Football in the Community department but the Foundation is something entirely different.
“The club took around 1,000 local kids to Wembley last season for our play-off final and the needs of some of the children in the area, combined with the generosity of the people and businesses that donated £45,000 to the cause, really opened my eyes to just what can be achieved by working together with the football club.
“For me, it is about the need to do the right thing and we’re going to use the expertise of the people at Huddersfield Town, along with the skills of the other businesses that come on board and support us, to improve the lives of thousands of local children in our area.”
The Early Kick-off Breakfast Club is set to launch next week.
The foundation has joined forces with several organisations such as Total Foodservice, Kirklees College, Kirklees Council, Caterer’s Choice, Stafflex and Kids Premiership to supply schools in the football club’s heartland with a free breakfast and NVQ level food hygiene training support.
Early Kick-off aims to provide thousands of free breakfasts so that an initial five schools can feed their pupils every morning, completely free of charge.
This equates to more than 50,000 free breakfasts for local youngsters and that number will grow if the foundation receives further donations.
For further details see www.htafcfoundation.com .
