Gordonian’s Alan awarded for growth of youth section

Gordonian’s Alan McLean has been awarded the final BT Volunteer of the Month Award for season 2016/17 for his tremendous work towards setting up a youth section at the club. Alan established the Gordonian RFC Pelicans section in August 2016 and, as a result, the club have recently attracted over 30 P1 and P2 children to the game of rugby. Alan set-up a competition with Robert Gordon’s College to design a logo for the Pelicans to raise awareness of the club within the local school, as part of the formation of the youth section.He also established a committee of parents to help manage the youth section and has assisted in obtaining sponsorship for the Pelicans to ensure the club has suitable training kit and equipment for players.Alan’s hard work has encouraged Gordonian RFC to grow into a family orientated club where the Pelicans section is valued alongside both the 1st and 2nd XV teams, while home games recently feature mascots from the Pelicans (14 mascots is the record). The Pelicans section will now look to include youth members from P3 and P4 with an estimated 60 young players participating in rugby next season. On receiving his award, Alan said: “I am absolutely delighted to win this on behalf of Gordonian RFC and must thank the club for their nomination and the Union for this award.”I am passionate about introducing children to the game of rugby and developing them for the good of my club and Scottish Rugby.Having played for Gordonian for 19 seasons, I am also passionate about making the club a force within Scottish Rugby, as it was when I first played for the 1st XV in 1980 and I am convinced that growing the base is the building block to making that happen.”I must thank everyone at the club for their support, in what has been a great season for the club, and look forward to developing things further next season and beyond.”Winners of the BT Club Volunteer of the Month award are invited to BT Murrayfield to attend the annual Scottish Rugby Club Awards Dinner. They will also receive up to£500 towards travel and accommodation to enable them to attend and can invite up to nine friends.