A whole host of West Ham United’s Men’s First Team players took time out on Wednesday afternoon to visit the Club’s Foundation Community Hub The Foundry, bringing a whole host of excitement and smiles to 100s of children in east London.
The players met children, coaches and staff who were all participating in a wide range of the Foundation’s 35 dedicated programmes which take place at The Foundry, supporting more than 4000 members of the community each week. The revolutionary community hub was officially opened in October last year and plays an instrumental role in ensuring the Club’s impact is felt beyond matchdays. It provides a home for a range of sport, education and social programmes that support 60,000 people of all ages and backgrounds each year.
Dinos Mavropanos, Kyle Walker-Peters, Ollie Scarles and Lukasz Fabianski, were joined by Ezra Mayers and Fin Herrick to give those in attendance a day to remember. The Foundry was a hive of activity on and off the pitch with sessions including a Foundation Girls football tournament and Post-16 Football & Education programme, as well as the enriching employability programme taking place inside.
Fabianski and Kyle Walker Peters gave their support to over 120 girls from 11 local schools taking part in a fun-filled football tournament as part of Premier League Primary Stars, a programme which uses the positive power of football to inspire children to be active, look after their wellbeing and develop important life skills. The presence of the players adding to the excitement, with the duo more than happy to lend their advice to the young players.
Upstairs in the enterprise zone, Academy graduates Mayers and Herrick were on hand to lend their advice to the Post-16 group who had a focus session on the business side of football, and both young Hammers were more than happy to provide insight, guidance and share their own experiences from their own journey to date.
Scarles meanwhile joined in with employability initiatives “Hammers for Hope” and “The Training Ground+”, both funded through the Premier League and the Professional Footballers’ Association – respectively aimed at local homeless people and young people not in education or employment. The programmes are designed to provide a wide range of development opportunities, including physical activity, cooking, mentoring, CV writing, and communication and interview skills.
The young Hammers defender participated in a Q&A session with the multi-purpose Strive Zone, sponsored ny London Marathon Foundation, offering inspiring insight into his own journey through the Academy. He also took time to learn more about the programme, championing its importance and impact on the young people involved.
Later, moving onto The Foundry’s 3G pitch, Scarles shared football tips with participants before speaking proudly about his nomination for Young Player of the Year at the upcoming London Football Awards, with many congratulations offered by the students in between plenty of selfies to mark the occasion.
Speaking following the afternoon at The Foundry, Ollie Scarles said:
“I enjoyed it, telling them about different focuses on and off the pitch and all the help we have from different staff groups to hold us into the players that we are. Hopefully they can learn from what I spoke about and it has helped them in the future.
“I think it’s really important for us to give our time to share our experiences with young people, we’ve had a lot of different experiences in the game, so it’s nice to pass that on. I know growing up, I myself loved being able to hear from professional footballers when I was growing up, it’s always an inspiration.
“The Foundation’s work is brilliant, just completely inspiring, the Foundry is an incredible facility, it’s really nice to come over and I really enjoy it, it’s great for everybody here.”
Fellow defender Kyle Walker-Peters added:
“The whole afternoon was really enjoyable, it’s something I would have loved to have been a part of as a kid, I know how much it means to them and I had a great time.”
