Thank You! In just 12 days we have raised over £25,000 through our Canary Crisis Fund Crowdfunder appeal. We have continued to be amazed at the level of support shown by the community, the wider footballing community and of course by our supporters.

When we came to begin our preparations for the reopening of Top Field it quickly became apparent that we faced some huge challenges. Several dangerous areas of the ground simply would not make it through another winter. With this came the prospect of relegation at our next ground grading, and the potential that we would not be able to safely use Top Field in the months ahead. This would have further impacted the clubs already critical financial situation, and indeed, we would not have been able to meet such costs. We decided we needed to be open and honest with you all and ask if you were able to help with the costs of these critical repairs. We appreciated that 2020 has not just been financially challenging for the club but also for all of our supporters and the Hitchin Community. We decided to launch our Canary Crisis Fund Crowdfunder campaign with a target of £25,000. We all felt that this would be an extremely ambitious target but this reflected the scale of the immediate critical repairs that are required.

Whilst we knew that the love for Hitchin Town and for Top Field was strong, we had never imagined that we would meet this goal in such a short space of time. Due to everyone’s generosity we have now been able to schedule in all of our list of critical safety repairs to ensure we can all continue to safely enjoy using Top Field.

As many of you will know the list of jobs now funded as part of our £25,000 appeal are only the most urgent of issues that need to be addressed. We also have a further long list of important works to ensure that our Supporters, Players, Staff and Volunteers can all continue to enjoy using and be proud to welcome everyone to Top Field for the foreseeable future. When we launched our six-week Crowdfunder campaign we had never envisaged we would have reached our £25,000 target, let alone so quickly. As a result, we have still have another four weeks to run and have therefore decided to “Stretch” our Crowdfunder target. We assure everyone that any further funds raised over and above our original target will be put to good use.

Below is an example of some of the further works that we are looking to fund:

  • Replacement of all gates within the ground
  • Repairs to drainage and guttering behind the main stand
  • Instalment of perspex screens in the turnstiles and a refurbishment
  • Replacement of fence panels and terracing within the ground (in preparation for ground grading)
  • New signage for the main stand
  • New shed for the Ground Staff and their equipment
  • Repairs to the current Club Shop (including leaks to roof)
  • Complete refurbishment of the old tea bar (when structurally sound), for future use as a Club office/Shop

We continue to struggle to put into words how grateful we are for the huge support shown by everyone as part of this appeal so far. We have been touched by the heart-warming stories that have also been created over the course of our Crowdfunder campaign. These have reaffirmed the strength of the Hitchin Town community and the family spirit of the club.

We are also delighted to confirm that we have already received a further donation of £5,000 towards our new ‘stretch’ target from Chief Executive Andy Melvin, with a further £5,000 to follow from Chairman Terry Barratt. These generous donations alongside the money raised to date now put us at over £35,000!

For any one still looking to donate we still have lots of rewards available including; our limited edition shirt which your name could feature on, copies of the fantastic ‘Tales of the Town’ book and a chance to be in the draw to sponsor the main stand. Any further donations would be hugely appreciated by everyone here at Hitchin Town FC and can be made at:

www.crowdfunder.co.uk/canary-crisis-fund

We hope you all enjoy seeing the impact that this funding and any further money raised over the next four weeks will have on Top Field. We will of course be bringing you plenty of updates as each of the elements of work are completed.