Peacehaven football coach gets national recognition for community work
Full report by ITV News Meridian's Andrew Pate
Dan Weston is the coach Peacehaven and Telscombe Under 8's and lockdown wasn't going to stop him coaching his players.
He's managed to run coaching sessions for his players online and still hands out the Player of the Week award, leaving it on the winners' doorstep.
Dan was inspired by England striker Marcus Rashford campaigning about child food poverty, and felt Peacehaven and Telscombe Football Club could be helping too.
As well as running the Peacehaven Boot locker, where he collects and distributes second hand football equipment, he and the team used the club kitchen to start cooking up meals, after asking the local community for donations of food.
Very quickly the donations came pouring in and soon there was a surplus of donations. "It started with food so they could get by during the week. It really just stemmed from there really and even at Christmas we decided what we would do, as we had so much food and people were still asking to donate, that we we ended up doing Christmas hampers".
He even says that people have seen the videos of the club's community work and have been inspired to do it too: "It shows everyone wants to do something to build that community back up" Dan says.
Dan says he's chuffed to win the first ever FA Mutual Respect Award. But feels the most important thing is helping the youngsters during this difficult time.