Durham Women were out and about across the North East during the last week – as we visited hundreds of local youngsters as part of International Women’s Day.
First-team players visited three different locations across Wednesday, March 8 and Thursday, March 9, while also welcoming a local school to Maiden Castle.
The visits left plenty of local children inspired, and they were all given a ticket to come and watch our Women’s Football Weekend game with London City Lionesses.
Here’s a round-up of what we got up to…
Wednesday, March 8
International Women’s Day started with a visit from aspiring female footballers from Kepier School, who took in a first-team training session while enjoying an informative talk from the club’s Performance Lead, Simon Fairbairn, on careers in football.
They were then able to meet first-team duo Grace Ayre and Lily Crosthwaite and grill them on everything to do with being a professional footballer.
Sarah Wilson, Jess Clarke, Georgia Robert and Maria Farrugia then headed to Bede Sixth Form to support their #LetGirlsPlay event.
There, the quartet joined in with a fun game with two local secondary schools – before answering questions from the group.
The final stop of the day was at Farringdon Community Academy in Sunderland, where over 100 primary school girls took part in a fun and competitive tournament.
All participants were able to meet and mix with Durham Women stars Hannah Greenwood, Lily Crosthwaite, Rio Hardy, Mollie Lambert and Bridget Galloway – who were also on hand to dish out the trophy and medals at the conclusion of the afternoon.
Thursday, March 9
Our final International Women’s Day visit came at Kepier School, where dozens of players from the secondary school and neighbours Castle View School came together for their weekly session.
Becky Salicki, Beth Hepple, Dee Bradley, Naoisha McAloon, Grace Ayre and Saoirse Noonan all managed a team in a fun-filled tournament before an interesting and engaging Q&A session.
