It was the year when Wayne Rooney was born, neon was in fashion and George Orwell was proved wrong.
Much has changed since 1985, but one constant has been Arsenal in the Community, which this week celebrated a quarter century of helping North London people through a variety of sporting, charitable and educational projects.
Gunners players marked the milestone by visiting projects and meeting participants, while some of the programme’s longest-serving volunteers led the team out against Burnley at the Emirates on Saturday.
Founded by former first team kit man Vic Akers OBE, Arsenal in the Community was set up to encourage young people in North London to participate in sport. Since then, it has delivered more than 5.5m hours of time to more than 1m participants.
Alan Sefton, current head of Arsenal in the Community, said: “It seems the more things have changed in the world, the more they’ve stayed the same with us. All of our programmes embrace a cross section of community involvement and they’re delivered and received with the same energy and commitment today as when they started 25 years ago. To us, that’s the true test of success.
“We hope that everyone involved with Arsenal in the Community enjoys this week of celebration and gains inspiration from the memories and stories of participants. We have looked back to look forward. Here’s to another 25 years and reaching more people through our programmes than ever before.”
