UNSUNG heroes who have laboured for their communities are being rewarded with free tickets to the Commonwealth Games for organisations they have nurtured.
Among them are George and Pam Hibbert, of Bashall Eaves, Clitheroe, who are celebrating the success of the junior football club they founded 10 years ago.
The couple set up the Clith- eroe Wolves after their younger son Thomas, who was then 10, found he would have no soccer mates until he started secondary school at 11 after leaving his cubs' side at the age of nine.
Pam said: "George came home after the last game of the season with the cubs and said: "These lads are really desperate to play, I'm going to start a junior football club'."
The couple began with two teams -- an under 12s and an under 11s -- but now have about 450 members from the age of five to 18.
"There are currently 24 teams, including two girls' teams.
Youngsters are taken on at the age of five or six and coached from the age of seven on Saturday mornings. The Hibberts' elder son Ross, 24, is now manager of the Wolves' under 11s.
The two original teams started off in the Accrington Boys' League, which plays on Saturdays (under 11s) and in the Sunday Burnley Youth League (under 12s). Teams still play in both leagues but also compete in the Sunday Hyndburn League, the North Valley Friendly League, the West Lancashire Colts' League and the Blackburn and Darwen Youth League.
The club now has Charter status with the Football Association, presented last year by Jamie Redknapp, and has 72 managers -- men and women -- who give their time for free.
Pam said: "This has been the nicest thing about it -- it has brought the community together. It has created good community spirit because everything is done voluntarily."
The club has 84 sponsors, including Trutex childrenswear which has sponsored the junior kits for 10 years, and Clitheroe-based Synetix.
George who, at 64, looks at least ten years younger and jokingly describes himself as looking like "David Dickinson, Lovejoy, Kevin Keegan's older brother and, when I have my top hat on, Frankie Vaughan", has budgeted for £20,000 for the 2003/04 season.
He proudly reveals that some youngsters have gone on to join the football academies at Blackburn Rovers and Preston North End.
They include James Tootle, son of the Hibberts' neighbours Adam and Susan, who is now with the Rovers' academy.
Pam said they were delighted at how some youngsters who seemed to make no headway at school had gone on to get good jobs and become "nice lads" after joining the Wolves.
The club has been offered 12 free tickets for the day of the 100m finals -- part of a 10,000-ticket giveaway by United Utilities.
Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans, who nominated the Wolves, said: "George Hibbert and his friends have created a number of football teams for boys and girls and three to four hundred are playing every Saturday throughout Clitheroe.
"If it wasn't for the driving force of people like George, then you would have all these youngsters either roaming the streets with nothing to do or lying at home not getting fit.
"I think that it is hugely important that George and the other volunteers get recognised and I am extremely grateful that United Utilities have allowed us this opportunity."
Other Community Champions from East Lancs include: Great Harwood Otters; Great Harwood Rovers Boys' Football Club; Ribble Valley Visually Impaired Group, Clitheroe; Lancashire Rural Stress Network, Clitheroe; Harmony, a project based in Accrington aimed at using sport as a means of social integration; and three Blackburn organisations -- Ewood and Fernhurst Community Association, Accrington Road Runners and the Shad All Stars, Shadsworth.
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