YOUNG fans of ours, members of Roary’s Pride, the Roughyeds’ Young Supporters’ Club, or more commonly known as the Kids’ Club, will be given a guided tour of the Civic Centre at 5pm on Tuesday (July 25) by no less an Oldham citizen than our No 1, the Worshipful the Mayor of Oldham, Councillor Zahid Chauhan OBE.
The visit to our town’s nerve centre, where the Mayor will talk to the children about Oldham and how the borough is run by the Council on a day-to-day basis, is the brainchild of the men who organise and run Roary’s Pride (Kids Club), namely the brilliant father-and-son team of David and Nathan Murgatroyd who, with others, do a marvellous job on behalf of their Kids in Roary’s Pride, writes ROGER HALSTEAD.
There were reasons for going with ‘Pride’, not only because its the collective noun for a family of young lions — and our loveable mascot Roary is a lion — but because the Murgys are keen to install a sense of ‘pride’ in their young lions.
Said David Murgatroyd, who is the club’s CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER and, as such, a key member of our media team:
”When we started Roary’s Pride, my plan was not merely to have a supporters’ club for young fans, but to have our children learning new skills and to install in them a sense of pride in their town, in their team but most of all in themselves.
”This visit to the Civic Centre will, I hope, give our Kids Club members a sense of pride in their town, its history, its present and its future. After all, REAL Roughyeds love the town their beloved team is proud and privileged to represent and to carry its name. We are OLDHAMERS — and proud of it."
The organisation will continue to be called Roary’s Pride but will also be known, for ease of recognition, and colloquialism, as the Kids Club.
Adults are more than welcome to accompany their children to the Civic Centre, but they are asked to first inform Roary by dropping him a line to his email address which is: nathanmurgatroyd@hotmail.com
The tour will start in the Mayor’s Parlour, where he will greet the children, who can have a drink and a biscuit, and then they will be taken to the Council Chamber, where the Mayor will explain what the Council is, what it does and how it works.
The visit will also include Question Time and a look at the silverware area where the children may see the famous Standard Cup, the prestigious prize which is up for competition each year by those local community clubs which are members of the Oldham Amateur League.
It will, as the Kids Club’s first outing this year, be a big occasion for the youngsters and, we feel, a very rewarding one for the Mayor and for the people who have helped to set it up, including the Murgatroyds, Councillor Ros Birch, and Andrew Whitehead of the Council’s admin team.
All Murgy asks (that’s David Murgatroyd) is that as many members of Roary’s Pride as is possible take advantage of the Mayor’s goodwill gesture to be so heavily involved with young citizens of Oldham.
