Village Hotel Club Bowls teams up with Joe Root to launch cricket community volunteering project

Village Hotel Club teams up with England cricket captain Joe Root to launch nationwide community volunteering project

• Joe Root goes back to his roots by joining 30 Yorkshire school children in a cricket workshop

• The event took place at the Village Hotel Club, Leeds South to celebrate the launch of Village Hotels Club’s community volunteering initiative

• Village Hotel Club has pledged more than 30,000 volunteering hours per year across its 30 hotels and Health Clubs as it focusses on supporting local communities

 Joe Root today joined local school children to launch Village Hotel Club’s new community volunteering project. The England cricket captain was joined by 30 primary school children from Morley New Lands Academy at the Village Hotel Club, Leeds South to encourage boys and girls to take up the sport.

The event launched Village Hotel Club’s new volunteering initiative, The Village Green, which will see the hotel chain commit more than 30,000 hours per year to volunteering in the local community. Each hotel will encourage 10 employees per month to spend a day with any charitable or community project they wish. In addition, every hotel will dedicate one day per month to supporting local sporting groups or events and will also adopt a local charity for the year.

The volunteering is part of a wider Village Green programme which will see the business roll out several more programmes in the coming months as it aims to become a hub for each community it is in.

Joe joined in as school children from Morley New Lands Academy tried out different cricket skills in the event hosted in partnership with the Yorkshire Cricket Board, and supported by the CricketKidz Sports Learning Zone.

The workshop was made up of three stations where the youngsters could practise bowling, batting and fielding. Joe was also on hand to give out advice and answer questions about his career.

Chairman of Village Hotel Club, Gary Davis, said:

“To have Joe Root supporting our work in the community is fantastic.

“Our Leeds South hotel has decided to dedicate time to encouraging youngsters into cricket and our other hotels across the country will take up different causes, with each hotel dedicating 1,000 hours per year to supporting community groups.

“We have called this initiative The Village Green and in the next few months we will be announcing several other programmes that will put us at the heart of local life.

“Local community is key to us, we believe in being more than just a place where individuals come to stay, but recognise our role as being a hub for the communities we are in.”

Joe Root, who has been an ambassador for Village Hotel Clubs since 2016, said:

“To be able to spend the day inspiring young people into the sport I am passionate about is such a privilege.

“I strongly believe that your community is what makes you, so I think it’s so important that local businesses get behind what’s going on in their area.

“For Village Hotels to dedicate this time to encourage young people into sport can make a huge difference to some of these youngsters who might discover a talent they never knew they had.”

Gareth Davis, Cricket Development Manager (South Yorkshire), at Yorkshire Cricket Board, said:

“We’re delighted to be working with Village Hotel Club and Joe Root on such a wonderful initiative. Now is a great time for cricket in the UK and there is a lot of excitement behind the game at the moment following our recent win. We really want to use this focus on the game to demonstrate that this is a sport for everyone, so that we can get more youngsters involved and see the benefits that it can bring.

“We’re also heartened to hear that this is a part of a broader programme to support local sport across the country – a great chance to get more kids into sports that they might have never tried before and perhaps an opportunity for us to find the next Joe Root!”