Friday 16th September, 2022 at 2:45pm
This weekend’s Community Champions, presented with McDonalds Maryhill, are a group of people who regularly give up their time to help the club and keep the stadium clean.
Frank O’Kane, Dean O’Connor, Stewart Wilson and Robert Richardson are all participants in some of the Partick Thistle Charitable Trust’s football programmes at Petershill Park, representing the Trust in a variety of tournaments and competitions in the Glasgow area.
They have also been kindly volunteering at Firhill as of late, doing some litter picking and cleaning around the grounds of the stadium.
We caught up with them to chat a bit about their involvement with the Charitable Trust and their voluntary work with the club.
Robert began: “I live just up the road in Possil and I’ve supported Thistle for a long time so I enjoy coming to the stadium and helping out because I love the club.
“We all play at the Charitable Trust together where we get to play in a league and things like that. It’s like a band of brothers really and a lot of us suffer from mental health problems so what we do with Thistle and the Charitable Trust has helped us out a lot.
“Knowing we’ve got those people to speak to is a great thing. It’s one of the best things I’ve come across because of that support that you get. Also, it gets me out the house and lets me breathe rather than being stuck at home in my own head. If I didn’t have the football, I don’t know where I’d be.”
Frank O’Kane, who took part in the SPFL Trust Trophy draw recently, said: “I come from the East End of Glasgow in the Tolcross area and I’ve enjoyed picking up the litter at Firhill, coming along to the games and playing football with the Charitable Trust. I’ve been going for seven years and it’s something I’ve enjoyed every minute of.
“Towards the end of last season we got the chance to play on the pitch here at the stadium and that was a fantastic experience – everyone was delighted.”
Stewart Wilson added: “I actually heard about the Charitable Trust from an upstairs neighbour who played under Paul Kelly. He invited me along and gave me the chance to get involved and now it’s been eight years and I love it.
“Thistle have helped me out a lot with my mental health whether that’s through playing or helping out in other ways – it definitely helps out a lot.”
Dean O’Connor said: “We stick up for each other and have each other’s backs. If anything goes wrong, we back each other up.
“We get the chance to go to different places to play and it’s an opportunity to show who we are and be who we are and give 100% effort.”
We’ll be welcoming Robert, Frank, Stewart and Dean to Firhill tomorrow as our McDonalds Maryhill Community Champions.
Do you know someone who deserves to be recognised as a Community Champion?
You can obtain more information by emailing
