Scotland heroes James McFadden and Rachel Corsie were on hand to surprise young supporters at an Easter Fun Football session and Happy Readers event.
Our partners, McDonald's, hosted the special pop-up experience for local families in Glasgow - providing free Fun Football coaching and free Little People BIG DREAMS® books for the kids to enjoy during the Easter holidays.
James and Rachel kicked off proceedings by joining the Fun Football session, before sitting down to host a reading of Little People BIG DREAMS 'I Can Be a Sports Champion' in the Happy Readers® library.
Research, carried out by McDonald's, recently found that despite both sport and reading being of equal importance to 71 per cent of parents in Scotland, 65 per cent say they struggle to afford to pay for both outside of the school term – with parents saying recreational activities set them back an average of over £370 a year.
The event took place to highlight the need to support local communities more than ever. Recognising this, McDonald's will build on its ongoing commitments to local families in the UK with the distribution of over 10 million books through the Happy Readers programme and the provision of over two million hours of free Fun Football sessions a year.
In total, James and Rachel helped hand out over 2000 Little People BIG DREAMS books, footballs and bookmarks to families in Glasgow, while they also chose a local charity to be the recipient over a further 5000 books.
Scotland legend James said: "It was so great to be part of the Happy Readers Fun Football event in Glasgow. Being a parent myself, I know how important reading and keeping your child active is for their development, so it's brilliant that McDonald's continues to do its bit in guaranteeing kids across the UK. I wish I had this when I was a youngster."
Scotland Women's National Team captain Rachel added: "Seeing the boys and girls playing football, some for the first time, and reading books was so brilliant to see. I have good memories of my parents reading to me before taking me to football practice so it's great that McDonald's is improving accessibility to books and sport. These resources that McDonald's is providing are so valuable for all parents and to future Scotland generations."
McDonald's franchisee Andy Gibson continued: "The event in Glasgow has been a fantastic success today and it's great to be able to combine these two long-running programmes to provide an experience and unite children with differing interests. As a business we are passionate about supporting and showing up for local families – especially given the current pressures people are under today. It really is a great programme to offer and who knows, we may even have inspired Scotland's next footballing legends right here."
To find out more about the Happy Readers and Fun Football programmes, visit www.mcdonalds.co.uk/family