Recently SMiSA, the St. Mirren Supporters' Trust gave our latest contribution to the St. Mirren Youth Academy, allowing for the purchase of new footballs to be used by teams across all age groups.
The trust's contributions to the club's youth development department are paid for by those members who wish their subscriptions to go to the Academy, along with any proceeds from our social events.
Trust committee members Wullie Bell & Tony Dorris present the balls to the St. Mirren Youth Academy
Over the years we at the trust have continually supported this area of the club in raising money for it, as investment here is very much investment in the future of what is going on the pitch for all of us.
This is best illustrated with last week's U-21 Scotland match at Tannadice vs Hungary, where 3 St. Mirren players in Sean Kelly, Kenny McLean & John McGinn all received caps for the national youth side.
All at the trust are delighted for them to be recognised in this fashion at a national level, and we can take pride in that our contributions have helped with their development to become key players for both club and country.
St. Mirren Under-20s coach Brian Sproul said of the trust's donation:
"We would like to thank SMiSA for their continued support and for recognising the importance of youth development at the club.
"In recent seasons we have seen the emergence of players such as Sean Kelly, Jason Naismith, Marc McAusland, Thomas Reilly, John McGinn and Kenny McLean who have all made the step-up from pro-youth football to first team squad status with St Mirren and hopefully with more to follow through the pipeline.
"SMiSA have always been big supporters of our youth development programme and donations like this latest one help us to keep up the good work through our Academy at Ralston where we strive to produce and develop the St Mirren players of the future.
"The latest donation from SMiSA has once again been fantastic and we would like to thank them and their members for their continued support of our Academy."
From all at the trust, we can only hope that Brian is right and that many more big players will come through the Academy, with the trust's continued support in the future.