It all started with a little pique of interest, always a dangerous thing. Red and White Army were doing a flag display and they needed some volunteers. That sounded like something I could enjoy and to contribute to an atmosphere that wasn’t exactly rocking all the time at the Stadium of Light felt like I was playing a part; helping lift the phoenix from the ashes. That first time we did the flags I remember looking back at the Roker End with pride as the flags billowed. We carried on doing the flags and Red and White Army carried on doing small things and big things to improve the matchday experience whilst also contributing to the community through food bank donations.
After weeks and months and years of working with a great group of people to set up the display we started to talk about what more we could do. How could we make it bigger, better…how could we show the players that we’re behind them and we’re committed to putting a shift in to do just that? We wanted to go big. The difficulty is that everyone who is involved with Red and White Army do it voluntarily. It’s not a job. People still have their own families and full time jobs to think about, and doing anything big on top of all that is a huge ask. I think it was on Wednesday night last week that I was added to a WhatsApp group originally called U37. The section of the ground where I usually sit (or stand to be honest).
We talked about what we could possibly achieve if we put a bit of time and effort in and plans started to develop, we have some great ideas now to take forward in the long term but there were still questions. How are we going to be able to fund this? How are we going to get the volunteers? Does anyone know the name of a printer? Will anyone trust us? We set up a crowd funder and got all the answers we needed. Within days Sunderland fans had shown just how much they want to help and how much they want to create something special. Spirit of 37 had launched and social media started to buzz. Within days we had over 3,000 followers. Suddenly we had to deliver this.
We contacted WH Forster Printers, a local firm on Pallion Quay who had worked with Red and White Army previously and we just asked them the question about whether they could deliver what we wanted. The response? “We’re all Sunderland fans, we’ll bust a gut to get this done for Friday”. A week of phone calls and we took delivery of the display at the Stadium of Light yesterday. It’s everything we hoped for and more. WH Forster have been an absolute pleasure to deal with and have carried out an amazing job at such short notice. We will always be incredibly grateful to them for that. They may have another big job on their hands if we get to Wembley.
Social media presence kept growing, we were contacted by a newspaper from Sheffield and on Tuesday night we were being interviewed. Last night one of the Spirit of 37 was interviewed on Total Sport. Momentum was growing. Today there will be volunteers turning up at the stadium at 4 o’clock to help bring all this together. A second batch of volunteers will arrive at 5:30. That is the commitment of people to this. We’re just four daft lads who love Sunderland but in the space of a week we have been overwhelmed by the generosity of the fans, the commitment of a local firm and the co-operation of the club in allowing us to get this done.
Thank you to everyone who has contributed, thank you to Chris Waters and thank you to everyone at WH Forster. It’s been a long week! You may be reading this wondering what the display is going to be, I’m not going to give it away I’m afraid. It’s complex and is going to need a herculean effort from our volunteers today. But we will deliver. Get in your seat by 19:30 and all will be revealed. And make sure you bring the noise.
As always
FTM
