Leeds Rhinos Foundation teamed up with global recruitment solutions specialist JBAndrews to help give Ambassador club Seacroft Sharks a helping hand ahead of the new season.
A team of 15 staff from the global recruitment specialists visited the Sharks’ home ground at Seacroft Working Men’s Club on Friday to spend a day helping to tidy up and paint the club’s changing rooms, as part of a new volunteering project launched between the two organisations.
The scheme will also see Leeds Rhinos Scholarship players given the chance to work with JBAndrews’ senior staff members to improve their CV writing and interview skills in a series of study skills sessions.
Jeremiah Bavington, Marketing Manager for JBAndrews and Project Lead, explained: “We were looking to help a club perhaps not in the best situation that was looking to bounce back and sort themselves out in the community and as a club, so teaming up with Seacroft Sharks fit perfectly for us and we were delighted to come down and help out.”
“It’s a massive opportunity for us to give back to the community. We don’t often get the chance to get out of the office to do stuff like this, so for our lads it’s brilliant too to get the chance to bond and get to know each other a bit more.”
Josh Bowerman, Managing Director of JBAndrews, added: “It’s an excellent opportunity to bring the community together. This club is so important because provides both the adults and children with a platform to come together, enjoy themselves and be part of something bigger.
“Even from the work today, we’re developing a pretty specific bond for this club and we’re thinking about more projects ahead. You can see they’ve really looked after us today and the extra lengths they’ve gone to like putting breakfast on certainly resonates with us, so hopefully we can continue to give back and support them going forward.”
For the Sharks, who only formed in 2018 and will be running a junior section for the first-time next season, it was a “much needed” offer of help to get their facilities up to the required standards, according to Club Secretary Lewis Ward.
“We have close contact with Leeds Rhinos Foundation who have helped us since day one to get off the ground with our junior section. They informed us of an opportunity to get some volunteers down to help improve our facilities and after applying and setting our intentions down here we were lucky enough for JBAndrews to accept our proposal.
“The club has been left idle for a number of years due to a lack of funding, meaning we’ve had to start from scratch to get things up to scratch for the kids.
“The guys have been fantastic, and they haven’t stopped to be fair. The energy is unreal, and they’ve been getting the painting done quicker than I could’ve imagined so I’m really impressed and thankful for their support.”
With four sets of changing rooms to paint, it was a full team effort needed to get the job done and Leeds Rhinos Foundation’s Community Club Development Officer Sam Horner duly obliged as he picked up a brush and got his hands dirty to help the team.
“I’ve got a background in trade work and sometimes I do miss it, so I couldn’t turn down the chance to get involved- especially as it’s for such a great cause,” said Horner.
“They’re having a great time in there and for a company like JBAndrews to be offering their support to Seacroft Sharks is amazing. It’s not just monetary, they actually see values in the sport and how it can change people’s lives and inspire them to achieve more.
“Their morals as people and as a company are superb and very similar to what we promote through the Foundation’s work with community clubs. It makes the partnership between us a worthwhile one and we look forward to working with them on more projects in the future.”
Seacroft Sharks are a community rugby league club and are now recruiting players for ALL TEAMS, including U7s, U8s and U13s.
For more information, and to learn how to get involved, contact seacroftsharksarlfc@gmail.com or call Richard Walker on 07565 933754.