In addition to operating across the whole Italian market, Euro&Promos, an Udine-based facility management company with 6,000 employees in Italy, maintains strong links with its home region through its support and sponsorship of multiple local events and associations. These include ASD Palma Calcio, the football club established in 2010 in Palmanova (Udine province) to help children to play football and grow up in a healthy, character-forming environment.
A “pure” association of local people, with simply recreational objectives. In fact it is also working with Palmanova town council to organise a range of educational conferences on subjects that are as topical as they are complex, such as racism and disability. Talking of sport, ASD Palma Calcio, which began only seven years ago with a small number of children, operates today in the youth/school sector from five to 18 years and it does not have a main team.
Among the 110 child members there is Marco (not his real name). He was born in Trieste 13 years ago, he lives in Palmanova and has a motor disability since birth; at 18 months he suffered a stroke, which caused right hemiplegia (lower and upper limb). His cognitive development is normal and he practices sport with ASD Palma Calcio. This activity was strongly recommended by his doctor, according to whom it is benefiting Marco physically and psychologically, with improvements in his self-confidence thanks to his interaction with his teammates as part of a group into which Marco is fully integrated and by which he is appreciated and supported.
“We have been ASD Palma Calcio’s main sponsor since 2014. We supply the sportswear for all the children,” says Sergio Emidio Bini, chairman of Euro&Promos, “but the greatest source of satisfaction is not seeing our logo on their jerseys but knowing that a young, local association has succeeded in such an undertaking thanks not least to our support. Euro&Promos helps a club that, in turn, helps others”.
It was not easy for ASD Palma Calcio to allow Marco to play football. The Italian Football Association’s red tape made things complicated, but the objective was achieved with the authorisation to play in the non-competitive sector (up to the Italian Esordienti category).
“Euro&Promos’s support was crucial to the growth of our club; we were able to accept more children and improve the professional level of our coaches,” says ASD Palma’s chairman, architect Michela Cafazzo. “It was enormously satisfying for us to be able to offer Marco this opportunity. It’s an example of best practice,” she continues. “Let’s not forget that football is a physical contact sport. Marco’s fighting spirit and his tenacity spur us on to do more for our kids and our local area. Lastly, I’d like to offer my heartfelt thanks to Giovanni Messina, the regional coordinator for the school youth sector, who assisted us through the bureaucratic procedure required to achieve our objective”.
Euro&Promos is one of the leading Italian companies in the Integrated Facility Management sector. It is based in Udine and has some 6,000 employees all over Italy where it deals with logistics, cleaning, energy, ecology, laundering, social services for private persons, information and relations.