Young footballers have eyes on the pies after diner backs fundraising bid for foreign trip
For the budding young footballers of Balloan FC, the stakes are high.
Fortunately for them, dedicated club backer David Macdougall has the steak pies.
The former award-winning butcher, now at the popular Café V8 in Henderson Road, Inverness, has dreamed up a mouth-watering fundraiser for the boys’ club.
From now until the summer, Mr Macdougall will donate 50p from every large and medium steak pie sold to help fund Balloan’s Covid-delayed trip to a major football festival in Portugal.
Every penny raised will be matched by a donation from HRL Scrap and Waste Solutions, run by Café V8’s owner Ronald Dyce.
The crusty delights are made to a recipe that landed the former Macdougall & Hastie Butchers a 2009 best steak pie in Britain award at Melton Mowbray in England.
Balloan FC, founded in 2003, currently coaches more than 150 kids from age 11 to under-17.
“Balloan is a wonderful club who are doing great things for local youngsters,” Mr Macdougall said.
“They’ve been hit hard, like everyone else in terms of fundraising with things like bucket collections stopped during the pandemic.
“When James [Fraser, coach] was in buying pies from us, we were chatting away and I suggested a bit of sponsorship from every one of the steak pies sold between now and June.
“We’re busy with sales of the large and medium steak pies, so I thought that would be a good way to generate some funds for the Balloan teams. In hard times, hopefully, it gives them a leg up.”
Café V8 believes it is unique locally in making all its own steak, scotch and other pies, bridies and sausage rolls. Balloan FC needs to raise a total of £55,000 to send 67 youngsters to the renowned Castelo De Vide tournament in Portugal, a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Lisbon and close to the Spanish border.
Covid-permitting, it is hoped the 2021 event from July 6-20 will see two under-15 teams and one under-17 team visit for the first week and an under-14 team take part during the second week.
“Café V8 are great supporters of the club and what they’re doing with this latest fundraiser is just fantastic,” said Mr Fraser, Balloan FC’s founder.
“We were supposed to go last year, but obviously with Covid-19 that fell. Thankfully, the kids who missed out have been invited back. It is a really important trip for these young folk, beyond purely football. It is a life-learning exercise for them very much in tune with our ethos of social inclusion.”
