Blue Nose Day 2023 brought Christmas cheer to thousands of children and young people in Birmingham.
It was a Blue Nose Christmas (definitely not the Christmas Blues) for thousands of children and young people after Birmingham City Football Club delivered their ‘biggest ever’ Christmas present fundraiser – Blue Nose Day.
The fundraising culminated at Blues’ Sky Bet Championship match with Leicester City on Monday 18 December, with the game being themed ‘Blue Nose Day’, where volunteers sold novelty blue noses for £3 each, alongside other fundraising activities.
Working with Birmingham Children’s Trust’s charity, Bfriends, the Blues latest community initiative meant more than 11,000 presents were provided in December, with the team at Bfriends recommending the most appropriate gifts for each age group.
Players from Birmingham City’s Men’s and Women’s teams distributed the teddy bears, water bottles, woolly hats and blankets in the week building up to Christmas, ensuring that every child associated with Birmingham Children’s Trust had something to open.
Bfriends Operations and Fundraising Manager, Natalie Loon, said: “We have worked with Birmingham City for a while now, and we are so thrilled to have been able to deliver this project for the young people of the city. Nothing of this magnitude has ever been delivered to children under our care before. It is simply amazing!
“It is a reality that many children will go without a gift at a time that is synonymous with happiness – so everyone connected with the club and all the fans should be proud that they made a child smile this Christmas.”
Commenting about the need for the gifts, Birmingham City’s Chief Executive Officer, Garry Cook, said: “When we look across our community, we know that an institution the size of Birmingham City has a duty to support as many people as we can. When we heard that many of the 11,000 children associated with the Children’s Trust would be without a gift this Christmas, we felt compelled to step in.
“The team at Bfriends do amazing work and we are pleased to have joined forces with them to put smiles on the faces of children and young people across our city this Christmas. A campaign of this size has never been delivered for children in their care in Birmingham before, so we called on all Brummies to support us with this amazing initiative. Birmingham City is more than a football club. We believe in the power of sport to change our city’s landscape and empower communities.”