Hundreds of hours of volunteer work from the Cowboys Supporters Team have resulted in another $60,000 cash injection for the North Queensland Toyota Cowboys’ development programs.
The ardent Cowboys supporters, who raised the funds over the 2013 season, handed over their latest cheque to one of the players who has benefited from their work, hooker Ray Thompson, at the Cowboys Leagues Club today.
The donation takes the Supporters Team’s fundraising total to a massive $450,000 over the last eight years and will be used to identify and develop of the next generation of North Queensland rugby league players.
The Supporters Team members’ continued dedication to the Cowboys has included running the doubles at each NRL home game at 1300 SMILES Stadium and the popular Supporters Thursday evening raffles at the Cowboys Leagues Club during the NRL season.
Part of the club’s victorious NRL Auckland Nines squad at the weekend, Thompson thanked the Supporters Team for their donation, saying his teammates continued to be amazed by the hard work the volunteers do for the club.
“Every one of the boys knows how hard the Supporters Team work for the Cowboys,” he said.
“They put so much time and effort into the club each year.
“I know the money they raised while I was coming through was very handy for my development as a player and there are other players in our current squad like Robert Lui, Anthony Mitchell, Kyle Feldt, Michael Morgan, Zac Santo, Javid Bowen and Sam Hoare who have benefited as well.”
Cowboys player development manager Dean Payne said the Supporters’ Team donation would help the Cowboys develop future NRL stars from North Queensland.
“Having North Queensland juniors play for the Cowboys is one of our club’s chief aims and the money our Supporters Team raises every year helps us to achieve that,” he said.
“We now have more NQ juniors than ever as part of our NYC squad and our academy and scholarship programs.”
Supporters Team president Don Cameron said seeing NQ juniors break through to the big time made all their work worthwhile.
“We’re a group of volunteers whose main aim, as well as comradeship and supporting our favourite club, is to raise funds for the development programs at the Cowboys,” Mr Cameron said.
“It’s really satisfying that we can help the Cowboys and North Queensland’s young rugby league players in this way every year.
“Hopefully with our members’ continued hard work, combined with the great support of the community, we can take our donation total past half a million dollars later this year.”
