The Leeds Rhinos Foundation can this week reflect on another successful year of work within the community; a year which has seen many changes and a renewed drive to bring about more positive impact in the region through the power of sport.
2014 marked the 150th year anniversary of Rugby in the city of Leeds and saw the heritage committee in partnership with A. Taylor & Son, provide a yearlong celebration of the milestone with a number of events, which culminated in a special service at Leeds Minster to commemorate all aspects of Rugby within the city.
The foundation’s work within Schools received a major new boost with the introduction of the Partner Schools Project. 40 schools from the Leeds region signed up in July to receive coaching in multi-skills, multi-sports and Tag Rugby from foundation staff from the month of September onwards.
There were plenty of fundraising efforts during the year, in particular the Quest 14 challenge, when Rhinos legend Keith Senior led a team on a cycling trip from Perpignan to Headingley Carnegie Stadium raising major funds for charity. Hundreds of volunteers then joined the Run with the Rhinos team for the Leeds 10k race in July and Community Clubs and supporters all helped raise money through the LRF Raffle, which gave away the trip of a lifetime to Australia.
The year was also very productive for the foundation’s Big Lottery funded education project Tryzone, which continued to service new areas of support for a range of people in the community. Some of the year’s highlights included a new project to offer help for Young Dads, the launch of the Tryzone Active Girls Group (TAGG) which focusses on confidence building and positive role models and a work club to help people in the job market all starting this year.
The 2014 calendar included many events that are now annual institutions in the city of Leeds, with the very popular Children’s Day in July, numbering an attendance of over 6,500 people, bringing together people from across the city. The Rhinos Challenge also returned to Skegness in May and was enjoyed by over 2,000 players and spectators from 47 Rugby teams.
The foundation has made strides in every area in 2014 with 30 full and part-time staff now delivering their strategic Rugby Development Plan in Leeds, which has once again been helped with the support from a partnership with MEARS.
Without these partnerships the foundation couldn’t hope to achieve any of its plan for community development, therefore, the club and Leeds Rhinos Foundation would like to thank it’s Key partners MEARS, PIMS, British Gas, Emerald Foundation, Berry’s, Leeds City council, Leeds City College and all associate partners and donors for their support this year.