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AN innovative campaign to help children understand important safety messages is being launched by local police and Morecambe Football Club at this Saturday's game against Port Vale.
The club has produced a set of collectable player cards featuring varied advice on community safety issues covering topics such as anti-social behaviour, criminal damage, bullying, online safety and racism in the community.
The cards will be available until the end of the season with two different cards being released to correspond with Morecambe's final home League 2 games. "Swapsies" days are also set to be planned later in the season so that people can catch up on their collection.
The player cards will be handed out at Morecambe home games with the first two cards being made available at the Shrimps' match with Port Vale at Christie Park this weekend. The Shrimps' football in the community staff will be on hand to distribute the cards on the day.
The cards are also being distributed by the club's successful community team, which visits schools and local organisations in their quest to promote awareness of the club.
The scheme has been organised by the Northern Division's PR and Media Manager Derek Quinn who has strong links with the Shrimps. He said: "The player-card initiative ran successfully a couple of years ago and the feedback was so good that we have won funding from the Lancashire Partnership Against Crime LANPAC) to repeat the scheme.
"Morecambe Football Club is a main focal point in the local area for youngsters and the card scheme will also hopefully help them raise their profile even further in the community.''
Chief Insp Matt Horn said: "Youngsters love these cards and they give us an excellent opportunity to highlight issues surrounding community safety with each card endorsing a different message targeted to young people."
Ian Groundwater from LANPAC said: "This is a great way of getting important messages through to youngsters and we are delighted to be able to support it.''