Plymouth Speedway attend 28. Final WOSP at St Boniface Catholic College
Representatives of Plymouth Gladiators Speedway were delighted to join and assist in the 28. Final WOSP Polish Charity Day at St Boniface Catholic College on Sunday 12th January.
Promoter Mark Phillips was joined by Richard + Gary Andrews, Maximus Gladiator and other Members of Plymouth Speedway Management and Backroom Team at the Event.
Commercial Director Ian Jordan explained the history of the Charity and details of the growing links between Plymouth Speedway and the large Polish Community in Plymouth and the wider Devon and Cornwall Area following their recent tie-in and link to the major Polish Speedway website Speedwaynews.pl which reports on Speedway globally.
“When Mark and myself first met Grzegorz Starzec who helps to run and oversee the Polish Speedway News website and who lives in Plymouth we discussed various ways in which we could collaborate to boost the profile of Plymouth Speedway with the local Polish Community, believed to number around 10,000 in Plymouth area alone.
Grzegorz explained the concept of WOSP (Wielkiej Orkiestry Swiatecznej Pomocy) which is loosely translated as Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity, a Charity in its 28th year, having been started in 1993 which in 2019 raised in the region of 175,000,000 PLN according to the Official Website. The Charity raised funds for Hospital and the Health Service in Poland focusing on purchasing Medical Equipment and also organising First Aid and CPR Training for youngsters.
It is I suppose not dissimilar to our own “Children in Need” in concept and actively backed by many of the leading Polish Speedway Teams like Czestochowa, Zielona Gora; Torun; Gniezno; Bydgoszcz, Tarmow and many others and all the top Polish Riders.
We attended the Event in Plymouth, one of the biggest in the UK and help at St Boniface Community College where our wonderful Mascot Maximus Gladiator quickly became the “star of the show” with all of the younger children and Richard Andrews and his Speedway bike outshone even the local Fire Brigade and Fire Engine in terms of visitors and those wanting pictures and a chat.
We made many friends and left the organising Head Mistress with 300 Free Season Passes for all of her Students under 16 and a similar number of Free Tickets for their Parents to attend one of the first two Plymouth Fixtures at The Coliseum in 2020.
There is a clear recognition of the Sport of Speedway amongst the Polish population that we are keen to tap in to and to build bridges between ourselves and the Polish Community.
We were given a wonderful and friendly welcome and can’t wait to reciprocate when hopefully a legion of new fans, young and older visit us once the season starts at The Coliseum”.