Help a Buddie
Help a Buddie is a brand-new initiative where St Mirren supporters have the chance to purchase and donate a match ticket for those less fortunate in the community. Supporters can offer to pay £25 to free up a ticket for those less fortunate and allow them to go and see a match and support their local football club.
St Mirren Chief Executive, Keith Lasley said: “We want them to be able to come along to a match, support the team and experience the stadium. It really is important to us as a club that we have a good connection with our supporters and we help the local community, given the tough times around the cost-of-living crisis. We as a club just wanted to give back to the community, especially in this time where we all need to stick together.”
There has been a number of good community-based projects at St. Mirren as well as many other Scottish clubs in recent years, including Keith’s former club Motherwell. However, football can be utilised more to get the most out of the local communities and more could be done on several platforms to use football for good, Keith said: “In general I think clubs across Scotland try and do what they can. I came from a club at Motherwell who were very much entrenched in their local community and tried to do what they could.
“Really ‘Help a Buddie’ is a St. Mirren initiative, it’s something in which the club does a lot of fantastic work in the community. Certainly, for myself recently joining the club, I want to move on and promote the already fantastic work that has been done, react to that and try and push forward- and it seems like ‘Help a Buddie’ will be a big part of this club moving forward.”
More Scottish clubs could follow suit with this great idea thought up at the Paisley club and that is something Keith would love to see happen. He said: “I think there is always scope to do more, football clubs, in general, have a great platform to be a force for good and we are certainly of that feeling here at St. Mirren.
“We want to be more than just a football club, to be more than just a game of football every Saturday. We want to help the people who support us, and our wider community through their lives and through the week. There is already so much good stuff that goes on through our charitable foundation, our street stuff programme being out daily and helping vulnerable people. I think clubs can always do more, particularly through these times we are having.”
St Mirren is becoming a force for good in Paisley, and the surrounding areas by looking out for their own and helping to build a strong community spirit. There can be lots of lessons learned for other clubs about how to run a great community football club and more should follow in their path to use football for good.