After last week’s Celtic Foundation bucket collection at Celtic Park, my 12-year-old, who was collecting, was amazed that someone put a £20 note in his bucket. He wanted to know why people do things like that.
There are lots of possible reasons. It’s the right thing to do, there are many in our community who are need, and who we would happily help if they were standing beside us. A lot has to do with upbringing, not everyone believes fraternal help services the common good, but for some, it’s part of their core values. More precisely, it’s part of the values they acquired when they took to do with their football club.
In the early decades of Celtic Football Club, people literally ‘clubbed’ together to build the first, and then second, Celtic Park, mostly without pay. An informal collection of labourers dug foundations and shovelled earth to create bankings. Many got involved years after Walfrid left for pastures news, but the way in which the community claimed ownership of the club, without actually owning a share, of course, gave you and me an enormously privileged heritage.
We have a back narrative which most 21st century organisations could never dream of attaining.
I know that £20 is a lot of money to put into a bucket, but this year I’ve seen many people do this, and so much more, in the name of Celtic.
A year ago the CQN community told Mary’s Meals that we would build a school kitchen for them in Malawi. We booked the Kerrydale Suite for CQ10 and hoped we could sell more than 30 tickets. The night was sold-out and you raised over £23,000. Before the night was finished the two guys from Mary’s Meals knew they had enough money to build three school kitchens!
The money was soon put to action, all three kitchens were completed by May. Each day over 2000 primary-age children eat what is often their only meal of the day in a facility you paid for, prepared with utensils you bought.
The UN reckon Malawi is the 17th poorest country on the planet, but it is fertile for development work. 93% of the money raised by Mary’s Meals reaches the target communities. The kids being fed in CQN kitchens for the last 7 months are heavier and healthier than before. School attendance has increased by over 30%, so kids who previously had to labour for food are now getting an education instead.
They will have better life-choices as adults and more of them will be alive long enough to become adults.
The CQNers who started our charity activities nearly a decade ago are the golfers, they did so again in July, then there was the runners, the badge collectors and the many who were just touched by one story or another and stepped forward.
One of the reasons many of you should be proud of yourself is the Kano Foundation. Kano – Martin Kane – was one of the original CQNers, who got up in the middle of the night in Perth W. Australia to watch his team, and argue with his pals on here. When he suffered an enormously debilitating illness a community grew up around him, which became the Kano Foundation, and has since brought thousands of kids to see Celtic.
This week we learned Kano is seriously ill in hospital, so the seasonal cheer is tempered.
Whatever your memories of 2014 are, they will also be tempered by the challenges Wee Oscar and his family went through. I know there are people who made an enormous difference to his life who first read about him here. The stories of the work they put in will never be told, because that’s the way they want it, but they made a profound impact on the world.
2015 has a hard act to follow, but we’ve told Mary’s Meals we’ll build them another school kitchen, and we’ve just told Celtic to book the Kerrydale Suite for Friday 13th March for CQ11. It’s St Patrick’s weekend, it’s League Cup Final weekend and it’s the week of the 50th anniversary of Jock Stein taking over; it has the making of a memorable night…..
Why do people put £20 into a bucket, why do thousands give anonymously throughout the year, why do hundreds go above and beyond the call of duty? If you think Celtic is a football club, you’ve not been paying attention. It is the most powerful social movement most of us will ever become involved with.
It’s an absolute pleasure to be part of the family and humbling to see it in action.
Have a great Christmas, you deserve it.
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Good morning friends from a dry, frosty and thankfully quiet (shhhhh) East Kilbride.
Santa brought my boy a National Geographic book for Christmas. We wee looking through it when I saw this chapter header.
‘Decapitated worms can re grow their heads and keep old memories.’
Ha! That’s where the Huns got the inspiration for the Sevco history myth I thought!
The I thought some more. Huns? National Geographic?
Nah.
Stringer,
only problem with your theory is?, the huns ain’t no worms, they are all snakes.
£10M for VVD? Ronny says he is staying.
But just wait until the bidding war starts for Messi MacLeod. All of Europe’s top clubs are surely poised to spend big.
Masty
Fascinating life story …if not quite a sad one
Pf
what a player.granda always braved about him.
Braved=raved..
Gordon j
The way VVD has been playing I’d take the £10 m ….. On the proviso that the money is something on the team …not ” football related ” expenses
Good morning everyone.
Hope you all had a lovely day yesterday.
My 4 year old had us up at 4.55 yesterday to see if Santa had been, magic moment. She was still going strong at half nine lat night. I was really fortunate to have such a beautiful day. Thanks to everyone I spend the time with.
Weetim67.
Had a good bit of fun with your snow at your address thing. Thanks for that.
Like No other.
Beautiful post.
Happy and blessed st Stephens day to you all
Sitting here thinking : when the hun train hit the buffers the zombies saw every tom dick and Harry as a potential fergus . Now any trust has been eroded as they watched all and sundry pick the flesh from the dead bones of rangers .
So in the spirit of peace and goodwill … Let’s all put this behind us – accept them as the same club – demand the sfa drop any charges and ensure they get into the spfl top tier in 2015 . Also we should put bucketeers outside every ground in Scotland for their fighting fund and set up an on line petition to hmrc to drop the ongoing case and as an olive branch : allow them Three years tax exemption . Oh we might as well ask Uefa to allow Scotland an extra place in the champions league and let them welcome Barcelona and Milan to ibrox next year .
So how about it bhoys and Ghirls : have they not been punished enough ;)
With the new faces on the SFA taking their first major decision re sevco,I think the message they sent out was loud and clear.From now on in,the rules will be applied.The rotten cancer at the heart of SFA governance,Ogilvy,has been cut out.Or as that bought and paid for liar Guidi calls him ,Scottish footballs top administator.It was a message also to the South African liar.Forget It.IMO
TBJ,
It’s Boxing Day – April Fool’s isn’t for months yet
Its official.
TBJ is actually Santa Claus.
St Stephens Day…..one of my favourite days of year, lots of sport. Cold meat, pickles, fruit salad and a new mulled cider recipe to start on in ten minutes. What’s not to like?
The glib & shameless may never be back in Scotland!!
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/dave-kings-dream-owning-rangers-4875145
Gordon / thunder rd
I got it in a cracker ;)
ItaliaBhoy
09:05 on
26 December, 2014
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.PFayr supports WeeOscar
09:48 on
26 December, 2014
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One has to ask if there is any value left to be squeezed out of Ibrox as they stand at the moment.
Let’s face it – if they ‘cleared the decks’, and for a moment forget about the ‘onerous contracts’ in retail and catering, with a motivated fan-base of 40k paying on average of £400 for a Season Ticket, they have a minimum of £16 million to run the club, first team and all.
Now Hearts are making a new start on less than half that figure – why couldn’t Sevco?
Murray Park could be jettisoned and Ibrox sold and leased back.
It seems a easy solution – liquidate some of your assets in order to strengthen the long-term viability of the company. They could have a first refusal on buying
Sorry – cont’d – Ibrox back in future.
Of course the problem may be that these prized assets don’t really belong to Sevco.
There will of course always be some kind of ‘Rangers’ – intriguing to wonder what it will look like.
Happy St Stepen’s day
cold and grey here in north staffs – Mass then off to vale park for the boxing day game v sheffield united ( aka charlie greene’s first cash cow)
Morning Timland from a cold hun free mountain valley.
Horrid Henry
Prob I see with sale and lease back, they won’t be able to afford it for starters.
Can you honestly see the hoards pitching up to pay some spiv rent, I can’t.
They, IMO, will do some sort of deal with another club in the meantime, while trying to get the bigot dome back on the cheap.
HH
Like no other. Post 08.08…..
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Brought back great memories.
CQNers. Scroll back and read.
In reference to St. Stephens day today. On confirmation, I picked the name Stephen. My Mum and sisters where a wee bit baffled. My Dad just looked and winked. It was ’68…..
HH
Three Celtic stories – on Gordon Strachan, Craig Gordon and Efe Ambrose – were all featured on CQN Magazine’s Facebook page yesterday and are all in today’s press.
MSM scooped again by CQN!
PF Ayr. I agree with you if were offered 10 mllion for Virgil we should grab it as in my opinion he is not all that he thinks he is. H.H.
Horrid Henry
Whatever it is, it will remain in our shadow.
In every decade for the last 50 years apart from the 90’s of course, we have won more titles than them.
Here’s to the next 50 years.
TBJ
Please send me some of whatever has been devoured by you yesterday.
Your forgiving knows no bounds.
Cough cough.
HH
Re: Ashley, I’m still struggling to see the angle for him. When you have as much cash as he does, there must be easier ways to make money than to throw millions into a basket case of a football club.
Is his “onerous contract” really that lucrative to him? Perhaps, but it all seems like small change – lots of hassle potentially for only a modest (in his world) return…
Winning captains
Santa didn’t come up with the goods, so I’ve been to the sales at your shop.
Should I have received a confirmation email post purchase?
Happy St Stephen’s Day CQN.
1 more sleep till we’re back @ Paradise.
HH jamesgang
Sevco will not want to go into Admin until promotion is secured. The ST sales that that will induce should not be over looked. Hence Sevco will start the SPL -15 pts ???
Ashley will drip in some of the retail cash he is making from the huns until ST sale time. There are still assets available. Easy pickings for him. The SFA want Dave King over Ashley as I suspect so does Celtic plc.
Sevco handing over the Arab money to BDO and paying the 250k fine finally along with a few other slaps on the wrist will need cleaned up by the SFA before dubaibhoy-ur they still deid?
20:28 on 25 December, 2014Sevco clinch promotion.
Sevco have taken the SFA to court before. They won and the SFA flinched. The SFA cannot pull the fit and proper person card with King waiting in the wings and the court cases that will be making the papers for the next two years.
Scottish football authorities along with Celtic have demonstrated by their actions and inaction that it is all about the Old Firm and at any cost to their reputation. They will get what they wanted but three years later than they wanted. That narrative has been set in stone since the 5 way agreement.
The only interesting thing left within Scottish professional football is how the courts will deal with the fall out. Anything that might arise from those dealinfs that the Scottish football authorities might feel they still have to deal with. I suspect a big broom and carpet.
A rouse to pockel your money under the cloak of sporting respectability.
StevenCravenCSC
Parkheadcumsalford @ 9:50…
I was at that game at Easter Road too and distinctly remember the crushing outside the turnstiles. Very scary and similar to the scenes at Nottingham Forest when we played there in the UEFA Cup.
I spent the 120 minutes that night at Easter Road on the pitchside of the perimeter wall however the attendance was less than 40000. Not a full house by any means when measured by the capacity of Easter Road in those days.
When we won our eight title in a row at the same venue in 1973 there was an even bigger crowd – 45000.
I think what happened on the night was that a vey large Celtic support descended on Easter Road. As you know this was a midweek game and the supporters would have left after work and arrived more or less at the same time. Also, it was cash at the gate which caused delay and frustration as kick off approached.
I also seem to recall that the majority of Celtic supporters tried to gain access via one particular end of the ground. In those days of course there was no segregation – remember those days?
Still there today, that wee narrow bridge at Albion Street(?) did not help with crowd control.
We won on the night but lost in that year’s final in a disaster of a cup final replay.
Parkheadcomesalford
I remember sitting high up on the netted luggage rack in the train compartment with the help of my dad. The compartment was crowded so it was definitely a match that caught the imagination.
I think the replay circumstances may have had something to do with it. In the home game at CP Hibs were up 1-0 when Celtic scored in the last five minutes. I think Alec Byrne was the scorer. Lots had left the ground when the roar went up. I think I was amongst them.
Celtic were desperate for some success so perhaps that and the nature of the previous game had an impact.
I can also remember Hibs being a team who played good football so throw it all in the mix and you might have an answer.
It was choc a bloc inside the ground.
KevJungle
Seasons greetings to you too.
Being called a puppet by a muppet is a new one.
Bah humbug.
Auldheid
He should apologise, no strings attached!
Gordon and Auldheid,
Thanks for the replies. Auldheid, I was of a similar mind as yourself. I think what triggered my Dad’s reminiscing is that he used to look forward to our playing Hibs, as they were traditionally a team that tried to play good football. He knows the undead are playing at Easter Road tomorrow.
Its still strange why they did not bite that bullet last season, when even with a points deduction, they would have still been promoted.
Will the ownership of Snakemountain get brought into the open IF they go into administration and are they therefore determined to keep that day back as long as they can?
Is Adobe Flash player OK??
Just read the “minutes” of the AGM. Hiliarious!!!! Thers a movie blockbuster there!!!
Merry Christmas Bhoys & Ghals H H