Sunderland AFC

Sunderland celebrate World Book Day for 2006

Samson and his RIF teammates at a book distribution for World Book Day 2005

Pupils from East Rainton Primary School choose their free RIF books at the study support centre

RTG initiatives
Sunderland AFC's study support centre is one of the 10 football clubs who received a grant from Reading The Game to run a RIF project in 2002. Since 2002 Sunderland have run a RIF project every year with great success.

Non-RTG literacy activity

World Book Day 2006
The Black Cats ran a RIF presentation for children from Usworth Colliery Primary School in Washington as part of their 2006 World Book Day celebrations. They came to the Stadium of Light dressed as characters from various books .

Sunderland chose to work with Years 5 and 6 for the first year of their RIF project. The project featured in the matchday programme, on the website, in the junior supporter's magazine '24-7'and has appeared in the club magazine 'Legion'.

The club marked World Book Day in 2005 with a special RIF giveaway.

In 2002 players Darren Williams, Kevin Phillips and legend Niall Quinn all appeared in a poster campaign promoting reading called 'Read the Game'. This saw free sets of posters being delivered to every school in the region. This initiative was run by Easington & Seaham EAZ, supported by Reading The Game and funded by the Football Foundation.

The study centre manager said of the 2004 project:
"At the beginning of the program children assembled their RIF boxes and then chose their books. At the end of term celebration of achievement, children were given a goodie bag, certificate and a book. The children enthused about their books. They then showed their books and boxes back at school."