WHEN City come out onto the pitch at Carrow Road on Saturday to play Doncaster Rovers, they won't be dressed in their normal Aviva strip.

This is because for one day the Canaries will be sporting the name of a small Norfolk-based charity - The Benjamin Foundation - which beat four other worthy causes when it captured the hearts of Norfolk and won the highest number of public votes in a county-wide competition for one day's worth of sponsorship of Norwich City Football Club.

The sponsorship package won by The Benjamin Foundation includes a full set of specially-commissioned team shirts, use of the Aviva executive box, coverage in the matchday programme and collectors around Carrow Road pre-match.

The package which has been donated by City's main club sponsor, Aviva, is a first for Norwich City Football Club. Chris Elliott, Aviva's Sponsorship Manager, told canaries.co.uk: "Aviva sponsored Norwich City because we wanted to show that we're still very much part of Norwich, Norfolk and the community.

"I think today will create massive awareness of the Benjamin Foundation, they've been established for 16 years now but I'm sure there's a lot of people of Norfolk that don't know about the good work that they do. After tomorrow, 25,000 people will be reading about it and seeing it on TV so lots more people will know about it."

Representatives of The Benjamin Foundation and Aviva were at the Colney Training Centre today to officially hand over their shirt ahead of City's match with Doncaster Rovers. City midfielder Darel Russell was happy to wear the shirt for a photocall and support the initiative. "It's great publicity for the Benjamin Foundation," he said. "It will help other people to recognise that there are these charities out there that need this type of help."

The Benjamin Foundation, based in North Walsham in Norfolk, was founded by Richard Draper who named the charity in honour of his son Ben who died in a motorcycle accident at the age of 17. Over the past 16 years the Foundation has continued to grow and provides a diverse range of services for children and young people across Norfolk. The Foundation has highly trained counsellors and Parent Support Advisers working in Norfolk's schools and two homes for 16 to 25 year olds which provide not just a roof over the heads of their residents, but access to support workers who provide the young people with the tools that they need to live independently.

Charity founder, Richard Draper told First News that he couldn't be happier to see the City squad wear shirts with the Benjamin Foundation logo on: "It's almost indescribable, the thought that tomorrow the Benjamin Foundation's logo will be running around the pitch at Carrow Road is absolutely amazing. It's going to be phenomanal, I can't think what the emotions are going to be.

"Ben was such as star, such a lovely lad and he truly was someone who could get on with anyone from tiny tots right up to older people. To lose all that young energy was awful, so Vanessa, my wife, and I were determined to get something positive out of something so dark and negative.

"We're now touching the lives of 600 plus young people every week and that's brilliant, and I was delighted to get to the short list when we entered this competition. The thought of ever winning it was beyond our wildest dreams, but I was so happy people took the effort to vote for us and that was a real affirmation that we were touching people's lives."