Cherie Sivignon11:19, May 29 2021
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Aspiring footballers with Nelson Suburbs may get the opportunity to sign a contract with Scottish Premiership side St Mirren under a new partnership between the two clubs.
Talented footballers with Nelson Suburbs have a chance to get their foot in the door of the European leagues via a new partnership with Scottish Premiership club St Mirren. “It is massive for not only football in Nelson and our region but football in New Zealand,” Nelson Suburbs Football Club president Gary Booth said on Saturday as the news broke. In announcing the partnership with Nelson Suburbs and another with fellow New Zealand club Birkenhead United, St Mirren said the contracts would involve the exchange of players and coaches as well as the sharing of resources and expertise.
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Margaret Goff with Nigel Muir of Sport Tasman. Muir nominated Goff in 2019 for an Eelco Boswijk Civic Award for her work in setting up and running a welfare centre distributing food and products to families disrupted by the Pigeon Valley Fire.
It was meant to be just making “a few sandwiches” for crews during the Pigeon Valley fires, but Margaret Goff’s initiative grew much bigger than she expected, and earned her an award she had never heard of. In 2019, Goff won the Eelco Boswijk Community Hero Award for her hard mahi (work) coordinating a welfare centre set up of her own volition. The centre catered to the needs of those affected by the wildfires and supported the people involved in them, including firefighters, frontline crew and families who had homes threatened by the blaze.