Bluerover
Player Valuation: £60m
Well, the team did just about enough to get through, but this is a nice story regarding what some of the fans got up to while there..........
Great story, well done to everybody involved.
http://www.celticfc.net/news/8755
GENEROUS Celtic supporters have displayed their charitable side once again in Baku after visiting a local centre for children with Down's Syndrome and learning difficulties and donating a number of items to them.
A group of the travelling Hoops faithful decided to arrange the visit to the Mushfig Orphanage through the Baku Bhoys CSC, once the Scottish champions had been paired with FK Qarabag.
After buying items to take with them to Azerbaijan, they informed the club of their plans and Celtic were delighted to send them some gifts to pass on to the youngsters.
Celtic Director Brian Wilson accompanied the supporters as they visited the school today – which helps rehabilitate the children and put them back into mainstream education – and it was an emotional experience for all involved.
David Duff, one of the Celtic fans among the group who made the trip to the centre, explained the background to the story.
Speaking to the official website, he said: “It started in Iceland when we realised who we were playing in the next round. We were frantically booking flights and hotels and looking at how we could get visas and everything else.
“A Celtic fan in Moscow, Denis, said there was a Baku Bhoys Celtic Supporters' Club. He forwarded me their telephone number and I got in contact with them and explained that some of us were coming over for the game and asked if they could organise a trip to a school. It went on from there really.
“A few of the boys wanted to take some stuff over and I contacted John Paul Taylor at the club and explained what we were doing. We spent roughly £700-£800 on items to take over for kids – lunchboxes, pencil cases and the like. The club sent down some free items as well which was very kind of them.
“Ann McEwan, the wife of Bob at the Baku Bhoys, deals with a school where the children have Down's Syndrome and learning difficulties, such as Cerebral Palsy
“They arranged buses to pick us up from the airport and the hotel to go to the school.
“Brian Wilson joined us and he thoroughly enjoyed it, and the kids put on a show for us at the end.
“This whole school, the Baku CSC and other Celtic supporters back in the UK, they have been sending over bits of equipment that are outdated in the UK but over here they don’t have anything. The kids were literally lying on the floor and being left to fend for themselves.
“Because of this equipment, some of the kids have gone from lying on the floor to being able to walk and they are starting to integrate them with other kids, the actual school system in Azerbaijan. It was a fantastic trip and very emotional.”
“The kids loved the fact that people had gone over and taken an interest in them as at one point no one was really bothering about them. So they were over the moon and clinging on to a few of us and didn’t want us to let them go, so it was a real tear-jerker.”
David, a 52-year-old supporter from Milton Keynes, believed it was important that Celtic fans displayed their charitable side on their travels, maintaining the founding principles of the club.
“We are a club found on feeding poor kids in the East End of Glasgow and the fans that went along today were very much keeping that tradition alive,” the Hoops fan added. “We have groups like Celtic FC Foundation and the Celtic Graves’ Society and they are all doing fantastic work.
“It’s not just a football club. Being a good Celtic fan is about trying to support people who are less fortunate than ourselves"
Great story, well done to everybody involved.
http://www.celticfc.net/news/8755
GENEROUS Celtic supporters have displayed their charitable side once again in Baku after visiting a local centre for children with Down's Syndrome and learning difficulties and donating a number of items to them.
A group of the travelling Hoops faithful decided to arrange the visit to the Mushfig Orphanage through the Baku Bhoys CSC, once the Scottish champions had been paired with FK Qarabag.
After buying items to take with them to Azerbaijan, they informed the club of their plans and Celtic were delighted to send them some gifts to pass on to the youngsters.
Celtic Director Brian Wilson accompanied the supporters as they visited the school today – which helps rehabilitate the children and put them back into mainstream education – and it was an emotional experience for all involved.
David Duff, one of the Celtic fans among the group who made the trip to the centre, explained the background to the story.
Speaking to the official website, he said: “It started in Iceland when we realised who we were playing in the next round. We were frantically booking flights and hotels and looking at how we could get visas and everything else.
“A Celtic fan in Moscow, Denis, said there was a Baku Bhoys Celtic Supporters' Club. He forwarded me their telephone number and I got in contact with them and explained that some of us were coming over for the game and asked if they could organise a trip to a school. It went on from there really.
“A few of the boys wanted to take some stuff over and I contacted John Paul Taylor at the club and explained what we were doing. We spent roughly £700-£800 on items to take over for kids – lunchboxes, pencil cases and the like. The club sent down some free items as well which was very kind of them.
“Ann McEwan, the wife of Bob at the Baku Bhoys, deals with a school where the children have Down's Syndrome and learning difficulties, such as Cerebral Palsy
“They arranged buses to pick us up from the airport and the hotel to go to the school.
“Brian Wilson joined us and he thoroughly enjoyed it, and the kids put on a show for us at the end.
“This whole school, the Baku CSC and other Celtic supporters back in the UK, they have been sending over bits of equipment that are outdated in the UK but over here they don’t have anything. The kids were literally lying on the floor and being left to fend for themselves.
“Because of this equipment, some of the kids have gone from lying on the floor to being able to walk and they are starting to integrate them with other kids, the actual school system in Azerbaijan. It was a fantastic trip and very emotional.”
“The kids loved the fact that people had gone over and taken an interest in them as at one point no one was really bothering about them. So they were over the moon and clinging on to a few of us and didn’t want us to let them go, so it was a real tear-jerker.”
David, a 52-year-old supporter from Milton Keynes, believed it was important that Celtic fans displayed their charitable side on their travels, maintaining the founding principles of the club.
“We are a club found on feeding poor kids in the East End of Glasgow and the fans that went along today were very much keeping that tradition alive,” the Hoops fan added. “We have groups like Celtic FC Foundation and the Celtic Graves’ Society and they are all doing fantastic work.
“It’s not just a football club. Being a good Celtic fan is about trying to support people who are less fortunate than ourselves"
