RIVER City stars Frank Gallagher and Paul J Corrigan are to help collect this year’s Kano Foundation’s annual bucket collection at Celtic Park.

Since 2010, The Kano Foundation has been keeping football free for kids, giving over 9,000 kids a ‘modern-day lift over’ the turnstiles and a unique matchday experience at Celtic Park.

Fully fan-funded, The Kano Foundation relies on the generosity of supporters to Keep Football Free For Kids.  

Over 100 kids are expected to attend the match from all over Scotland, with match-day volunteers also expected to be in attendance.  

The foundation took inspiration from the highly successful “Bringing Martin Home” effort that was undertaken by the Celtic support. 

In 2008, Martin Kane, a Glasgow Celt living in Australia, was struck down by a rare neurological condition called Devic’s Syndrome in 2008. 

Martin, known as “Kano” to his friends, was a regular contributor to the Celtic Quick News forum and once other members of the forum found out about his situation they kicked off a fundraising effort to raise £60,000 to pay for modifications to his house to get him home for Christmas with his family after spending a year in hospital. 

One fundraising event was a bucket collection outside Celtic Park on a match-day. 

The overall campaign exceeded the target and it was decided to use some of the extra money to take a group of children, who had volunteered at the bucket collection, to a match at Celtic Park. The idea for The Kano Foundation was born in Martin Kane’s legacy. 

It’s patrons include Henrik Larsson, Tom Boyd and John Higgins.  

 The Kano Foundations mission is to treat youngsters, regardless of background and circumstance, to a day out at Celtic Park.  

Since 2010, they have given a modern-day ‘lift over the turnstile’ to over 9000 children varying from boys and girls football teams to local youth clubs, drama clubs and young people with special needs.