Students from St Margaret’s, Airdrie, and St Ambrose, Coatbridge are hosting the ‘Caritas Cup’, a charity football match between students of the two schools.
The two schools are set to play on the 16th of March, raising money for the Society of St Vincent de Paul and Coatbridge charity Stay Connected.
Adam Costello, one of the organisers of the event, said St Margaret’s chose the Society of St Vincent de Paul because of the growing connection between the school and the charity.
“For St Margaret’s, we’ve chosen to support the Society of St Vincent de Paul. Recently, for the first time, the Society has had an association with the school,” he said.
“Quite a lot of the senior school have joined the Society and it’s a charity the school is getting involved with more and more.”
Costello said that the choice of football to raise funds was important ‘especially in Coatbridge. It’s huge.’
“It’s not just certain people that can go to watch it, anyone can watch a football game,” he said. “It could raise more money at the end of the day.”
The event is organised entirely by pupils, with Costello saying the planning is ‘tough’.
“Organising a bus to go by St Ambrose has never been done by a pupil before. We need to go through different insurance forms. There’s a lot of planning in it.
“It’s difficult, but we just took the time to do it and now we’ve been able to get it sorted.”
The pupils are hoping elected officials will attend to show support.
“We think we can make it a big event.”
The Pope Benedict XVI Caritas Award was introduced in 2011 following Pope Benedict’s September 2010 visit to the UK. Final-year-of-school school participants are asked to ‘use their faith learning as a starting point for further faith reflection, leading to actions which show their faith witness.’
Costello emphasised the event, entirely organised by pupils, was an example of the ‘good Catholic schools do for Scotland by bringing together the communities through our shared faith and Caritas.’
Any donations can be sent to Saint Margaret’s High School Airdrie, Waverley Drive, ML6 6EUFAO, Mr Milarvie.