HARTPURY students teamed up with Wooden Spoon - the children’s charity of rugby - to help improve the lives of disabled and disadvantaged children in Gloucestershire by fundraising at Kingsholm with the support of Premiership Rugby and Gloucester Rugby.

Eleven BTEC rugby students manned a bucket collection at Gloucester’s Aviva Premiership clash with Leicester Tigers at Kingsholm on January 30th, and one even dressed up as Spoonie – the charity’s mascot!

This latest charity venture follows hot on the heels of rugby students volunteering to help out with a silent auction held at Kingsholm for Wooden Spoon, which raised more than £17,000.

While Matthew Callow entertained the families in the crowd dressed as Spoonie at half-time, other students collected donations at the main gate before the game. They were Hugh Whidbourne, Oliver Lane, Jonny Kibble, Beth Hicks, Ratu Naiova, Patrick Gaffey, Bradley Down, Jed Goodrum, James Cooke and Nathan Hargreaves. Some then stayed on to watch the game.

Tim Heal from Wooden Spoon, said: “The students were excellent. I would like to thank them for so willingly giving up their time to support us. I was particularly impressed by Matt, who agreed to dress up as Spoonie and did excellently with Beth’s assistance.”

“Thank you to Hartpury for allowing them to help us out. We are always grateful for volunteers.”

Wooden Spoon is the children’s charity of rugby and funds life-changing projects for disabled and disadvantaged children in the UK and Ireland through the power of rugby. Working closely with the international and grassroots rugby community, the charity funds a range of projects not just rugby focused. They are one of the UK’s largest funders of respite and medical treatment centres, sensory rooms specialist playgrounds, sports activity areas and community-based programmes. Since 1983, the charity has supported more than a million children with money raised by volunteers funding projects in the local area.

The Gloucester specific branch of Wooden Spoon run by Chairman Tim Heal, has raised more than £400,000 for projects that have supported disadvantaged and disabled children in the local community.