From left: Dan Gosling, Amy Marks from AFCB, Ollie Wheatley and Fiona Harwood of the Yellows, and Steve Cuss
AFC Bournemouth has teamed up with the town’s brightest bus company to drive safety lessons into schools.
Yellow Buses and the Cherries’ Community Sport’s Trust have created the ‘Soccer Safety School’ which has already kicked off.
It is being taken to 20 primary schools across the conurbation and will use football to teach youngsters how to stay safe while playing.
Steve Cuss, the club’s Head of Community, has developed the programme that will run for a year and reach many hundreds of pupils.
He said: “Together with Yellow Buses we are going to use football to bring fun safety lessons to schools.
“It includes highlighting the risks and dangers that children face when out playing.
“These involve road safety, which is something that Yellow Buses are experts in.
“We all want our children to be healthy and fit but we also want them to remain safe when they’re playing.
“The Soccer Safety School is designed to engage the children in a fun way – and in all departments!”
Cherries’ star Dan Gosling is the ‘player ambassador’ for the project and he helped launch it from a bus.
He said: “I am really excited to be a part of this amazing project. I spent so much of my childhood out playing football it’s important that today’s children can enjoy the same experiences safely.
“I hope this project will go some way towards making sure that happens.”
Fiona Harwood, from the Yellows, said: “Yellow Buses deliver thousands of passengers to the Vitality stadium every game but we wanted to work more closely with the club.
“This opportunity allows us to do that by helping to bring a message of safety to the young people who live locally.”
