Dragons Community Department End Season on a High

As the season draws to a close it is our usual remit to thank all the Regions supporters for their help and continued encouragement during the season/school year.

This has been another great year for the Community Department. To kick off the season and after many months of planning we welcomed on board Newport County’s newly formed Community team who very quickly settled into our award winning Gateway Programme which entered its 14^th year of delivery, thus it provided our schools and the pupils with an additional physical activity to enjoy.

With our full support in establishing motivational visits for the County, we were delighted with the impact that has been made during both the Second Half rugby and new football education days at Rodney Parade delivered by our Education Officer, Mr. Phil James.

In addition, the Dragons match day experience in terms of guard of honour, community guests and official mascot have provided thousands of memorable moments for many schools, clubs, community groups, boys and girls. Holiday skills camps also prove to be more popular than ever with youngsters attending from all corners of the region.

The forthcoming final home fixture will see the Tata Steel Gateway Tag Tournament celebrate its 13^th year when the final is played during the halftime break. This means that over 250 local primary schoolchildren will have tasted the thrill of playing in front of a huge crowd during the years and we still get reminders from schools how exciting and memorable the evening was for them.

The welcome return of sponsors Western Power has ensured that we continue to provide our disability days and that is one programme we are very proud of, as indeed are we about the continuation of the Princes Trust which we shall be delivering during the summer term.

We were also proud to continue partnership work with Cilt Cymru, Welsh for Adults (Coleg Gwent), the Police Service, Careers Wales & Job Centre Plus.

Finally, as we prepare for the last lap of the school year, a big thanks to all the teachers and support staff that have used our educational and sporting programmes to enrich their pupils learning opportunities and we would like to acknowledge our sponsors; namely Tata Steel, Melin Homes, Eastman, Vision Express, Wilko and Education Staffing Solutions, your support is very much valued.

See you all in September!!