Edinburgh Rugby And Hearts Visit Local Prison

Edinburgh Rugby chairman Gavin Hastings was joined by_lock Jim Hamilton (pictured)_and Hearts footballer Ryan McGowan to engage with inmates and officers at HMP Edinburgh as part of a ‘sporting Question session staged at the prison last night.The Scottish capital-based sporting celebrities fielded questions from inmates and officers about their respective jobs to shed some light on what professional sport is all about.Edinburgh Rugby chief executive Nic Cartwright was the driving force behind the innovative event and he believes it is hugely important to interact with every member of the local community.Cartwright said: We have established links right across the Edinburgh community and we are happy to be supporting the work done by the Prison Services._ ‘the event seemed to be a useful one for the Prison and I know that Gavin and Jim both thoroughly enjoyed the experience._ We will continue to work with a wide cross section of the Edinburgh community and we are especially looking forward to the Prison officers trip to our game against Newport Gwent Dragons at Murrayfield in early May.’this is another initiative that we have collaborated on with Hearts alongside our links with Edinburgh Capitals and Cricket Scotland and we hope that supporters will enjoy top-flight sporting action in Edinburgh this weekend.Hearts Managing Director Campbell Ogilvie echoed those sentiments and said: Heart of Midlothian is always keen to work with the Edinburgh community and we were delighted to team up with Edinburgh Rugby to support this initiative.The initiative was designed to encourage inmates at HMP Edinburgh to read more in the library and improve literacy levels. Sports books are the most popular in the library which led to the request from the Prison authorities to stage a question and answer evening with local sporting celebrities.