GIVE BACK TO THE LOCAL COMMUNITY

Rugby World joins BRISTOL BEARS over the festive period as they give a little back to the city and its people

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THE FESTIVE period is a notoriously busy time in the rugby calendar but it is good to see that down in Bristol, some still find the time to give back.

“Bears Giving Back Day is a really special day in the Bristol Bears calendar,” Jamie Skinner, chief executive of the Bristol Bears Foundation, tells Rugby World.

“It’s not just the men’s squad but women’s squad and staff going out into the local community and visiting partners of the foundation, whether that’s young people in schools, older adults at work, foodbanks.

Our players giving up their time to visit these people at a time when it is needed most.”

Two weeks before Christmas, during a busy Champions Cup and PWR block, 60 members of the elite men’s and women’s squads, alongside staff, spent the day in and around Bristol visiting 17 of the club’s foundation partners. This was everything from helping to run rugby workshops at schools to helping out at hospices and hospitals.

We joined the club at two of those visits to see the effect that a day like this could have.

We began at FareShare South West, a food charity that works tirelessly to provide around 4.3 million meals a year to people in food poverty across the region.