Queen’s Park have had a season of building relationships

To kick things off the club’s Food and Drink partner Dunn’s Food and Drinks were able to bring children from Aware Scotland, a charity that aims to provide unique experiences, build confidence and engender life-long friendship among those who have experienced trauma or faced adverse challenges, to the home game with Inverness Caledonian Thistle back in December.

Queen’s were on hand to offer a unique experience to teenager Eva Rooney from Aware as not only did the players wear warm-up jerseys ahead of kick-off that were designed by Higher photography student Eva, she was able to shadow long-serving club photographer Ian Cairns both at training and on the side of the world-famous Hampden pitch during the game.

At the end of 2023 Queen’s Park hosted Dundee United watched on by staff and families of patients from Scotland’s newest Hospice, Kilbryde Hospice, which is based in East Kilbride.

The club, after being made aware of the terrific work carried out at the Hospice earlier that month, became partners of Kilbryde and were delighted when our offer of free tickets for the game was taken up in good numbers.

The Queen’s Park players wore Kilbryde Hospice T-shirts during the warm-up to the game which was shown live by BBC Scotland and the Kilbryde name was highlighted to the world via the advertising boards situated around the pitch.

In March, the club teamed up with first season backers Impact Glasgow to showcase the outstanding work carried out by the Brain Tumour Charity, a cause very close to the heart of the Building Contractors Director Martyn Orr.

The club were delighted to provide a platform to The Brain Tumour Charity via their website and Electronic Advertising Boards as well as welcoming two mascots from the charity on the pitch after the players had warmed up with specially made T-shirts.

The next Charity Day followed quickly with family-owned independent pharmacy chain M & D Green, who sponsor the back of the club’s shirts working in partnership with The Spiders to create a fantastic day for over 100 people from Quarriers in their game against Raith Rovers.

The people form Quarriers, who aim to help people live full lives through providing practical care and support for vulnerable children, adults and families, and also look to challenge poverty and create opportunities for positive change saw the Queen’s Park players wear T-shirts designed by Sophie Combe from Let’s Talk at St John Bosco Primary, who won a competition to design a T-shirt on the theme of kindness.

First team players Ruari Paton and Stuart McKinstry visited Juniors Café in Hamilton along with representatives from club shorts sponsor SRB Wealth Management ahead of the second home game of the season with Dundee United in April.

Juniors provide vital support in their community by helping families and young people, many of whom saw a football game live for the first ever time when the Tannadice side visited.

In April, our final Charity Day was held in partnership with club backers Escape Recruitment who helped shine a spotlight on award winning inclusive dance company Indepen-dance with the club supplying a number of promotional avenues and mentoring.

Queen’s Park’s Head of Commercial Kieran Koszary said: “If you look at the numbers we had over 300 extra people at our games this season due to the Charity Partnership Days. That is a really good number however these days are more than just numbers they are about providing positive experiences and highlighting the very good work that these charities do.

“We know that our direct business partners and the charities involved have enjoyed working with Queen’s Park and it is important that relationships evolve rather than stand still.”