Wooden Spoon Society
Wooden Spoon is the children’s charity of rugby. Wooden Spoon fund life-changing projects that support children and young people with disabilities or living in disadvantage in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Since 1983, Wooden Spoon has committed more than £29 million to more than 1,300 projects, directly supporting over 1.4 million disabled and disadvantaged children and young people. Wooden Spoon has regional volunteer groups across the UK and Ireland that organise fundraising events to raise money for disadvantaged and disabled children. All the funds the regional volunteer groups raise stay in that community to  fund local causes and projects. History. Wooden Spoon was founded in 1983 after five England rugby supporters went to Dublin to watch England in the final game of the Five Nations Championship against the Irish. The game was lost 25–15 and England finished last in the table with just a single point gained from their draw against Wales. After the match, in a Dublin bar, five England supporters were presented with a wooden spoon by their Irish friends. Accepting the gift, the England fans decided to hold a golf match to see who would keep the wooden spoon. When the  golf match was held £8,450 was raised and the money was used to provide a new minibus for a local special needs school, Park School. This was to be the first of many Wooden Spoon charitable projects. Wooden Spoon projects. Wooden Spoon's focus is to help children and young people through projects such as sensory rooms, playground and outdoor activities, health and wellbeing and specialist equipment. Wooden Spoon has funded many projects over the years. Some notable recent projects include: HITZ. HITZ is a programme supported by Wooden Spoon and delivered by Premiership Rugby that uses rugby to  help young people back into education, vocational training, apprenticeships and employment. In 2012, HITZ received the Best Community Programme Award at the Sports Industry Awards. Celebrity support. Wooden Spoon is supported by numerous sportspeople who contribute their time and energy to raise awareness for Wooden Spoon. In addition, Wooden Spoon has strong relationships with a variety of clubs, league associations, governing bodies and corporate supporters. The trustees. The Trustees are volunteers responsible under the charity's governing document for controlling the management and administration of the charity. The life president, Peter Scott MBE, is one of the founders. He was  awarded the MBE for services to charity in 2002. Trustees include: