Monday
I arrived at Pittodrie Stadium at about 8:45 on Monday morning, I was ridiculously nervous but also very excited to begin working at Pittodrie for the week, it was an amazing opportunity for me to be at the stadium, the home of my club, Aberdeen FC.

Almost as soon as I entered the stadium, through reception, I was made to feel at home, all members of staff made me feel welcome and valued. The first thing that I did after I was introduced to all members of the office staff was attend a weekly staff meeting where I was introduced to more people.

After the meeting I was given a tour of the stadium and then had my lunch in the staff canteen, while I was eating my meal, the manager, Derek McInnes, walked over to my table and shook my hand and spoke with me!

In the afternoon I attended women’s walking football at the Sports Village, I enjoyed this and had a good laugh with the ladies there. I was back to Pittodrie and finished at 4.

Tuesday
On Tuesday I went on an Over 65’s Health Walk which began at Rubislaw Gardens and ended at the Foundry Bar in the City Centre where we had teas and coffees, I had fun on the walk and it was nice talking to all the people who came, just hearing stories about the past.

After we got back to the stadium we had lunch and then went across to the Sports Village for Men’s Walking Football, which was good, the pace was a bit quicker than at the women’s the day before.

Not long after I got back to the stadium we were going out again, this time to Seaton Primary School, for ‘Footy Tea’ which is basically a free football session at the Sports Village and a free meal at Pittodrie for kids from ‘regenerated’ areas with an emphasis on good behaviour and manners, I enjoyed helping with this and would say that it was probably one of my highlights of my week.

After this finished I helped deliver Football Fans In Training which is a programme for overweight men to get fitter while working with like-minded individuals.

Wednesday
In the morning on Wednesday I spent my time assisting with ‘Technogym’ a dementia friendly gym programme for older people, I enjoyed this because it was nice to make a difference to these people and just speaking to people and giving them that person to speak to and to get people out of their houses, I did this from 9:30-12:30 before having my lunch.

After lunch I went to Syrian Dons at Goals football centre, Syrian Dons is basically an hours free football session with Syrian refugees and I had fun here and it was good just playing football with them, even though it rained.

I got back to the club near the end of the last Technogym session and so I joined in before finishing at 4:30.

Thursday
We drove out to Tullos Primary from the stadium at about 8:45am on Thursday morning, the Trust were doing an assembly about various community programmes they were doing at the school and local area, helping with entertaining the kids, they weren’t very impressed with my dancing.

We also got a tour of the school from the house captains.

Friday
Today I had to take in homebaking, I am pleased to say that my cakes were received well. Today I spent the majority of my time in the office just doing paperwork, although I did get to go pitchside which was nice.

I am quite sad that this is my last day with the Community Trust as I have enjoyed my work very much.

Overall
I really have enjoyed my experience, obviously as an Aberdeen fan I have loved being at the stadium, seeing and speaking to players and the manager, all the staff are very friendly and welcoming and I really was made to feel part of the Dons family.

I found working with people to be very rewarding and it was eye opening for me to see just how much of a positive impact the Trusts work has on people and just how wide the impact truly is, it made it clear to me that if they can do all this good work with the massive lack of facilities they have now, they can do even better if they had the proper facilities that they would get at the new stadium if is built.

I just want to thank everyone at AFC and at AFCCT for making me feel so welcome and for giving me the opportunity to come here and work with them.