I received an email this morning from a UK-based flower seed company which I immediately knew I had to include on HEGS. Normally I ignore any requests for publicity, but this one is for charity, and is utterly brilliant as a story about film star Viggo Mortensen’s San Lorenzo obsession, so I couldn’t in good conscience not publish it. Read on for the press release; the story of why the world’s most famous San Lorenzo de Almagro fan is releasing a blue-and-red flower collection in the UK. If you want to order some for yourself, you can do so via Suttons Seeds’ website.
What Do Suttons Seeds, A Hollywood Film Star, San Lorenzo & A Devon Based Football Charity Have In Common ?
Our new charity CASLA Petunia Mix seeds will be available on the Suttons Seeds website from February 14th. The seeds are named CASLA after the Argentinian football team ‘Club Atletico San Lorenzo De Almagro.’ and are red and blue petunias of the team’s colours, 50p from each packet sold will be donated to the Torquay United Football in the Community Sports Trust, which reaches far and wide across the South West of England. But how did this all come about ?
The Film Star
Being an avid fan of Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn from The Lord Of The Rings), it was no surprise that during a book signing at the BFI Film Festival last year in London, Francijn Suermondt the PR Executive for Suttons Seeds grabbed the opportunity to pass him her Suttons Seeds PR business card. On the back of the card she had written to ask him if he would be happy for Suttons to name a flower mix after his favourite football team, and that all the proceeds would go to helping youth football teams in the UK with no sponsorship.
Two months later Fran was amazed to receive a postcard from Viggo stating that he would be honoured if we named the new Petunia mix ‘CASLA’ (Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro) which is his favourite team based in Argentina where he grew up as a child. And he would like the mix to be in the blue and red colours of the San Lorenzo shield.
At the 2012 BFI Film Festival in London on October 20th, Mr Mortensen was presented with his very own packet of CASLA seeds. He has since written all about the seeds and Suttons in his column on the San Lorenzo Official Football Club website, in which he stated ‘This is a priceless gift. You can imagine the amount of English people that will sow blue and red emblems in their gardens next year…’
The Charity
Established in 1992, the Torquay United Football Club Community Sports & Education Trust has a team who work tirelessly in Devon and the surrounding area to promote community participation in healthy recreation and providing facilities so that the whole of the community can enjoy the health benefits of playing football. The team are also very involved in running Football Academies to local children by providing:
- After school football clubs
- 3 week healthy lifestyle programmes
- Educational tours around the Torquay United Football Grounds
We will have Petunia ‘CASLA Mix’ on sale on our website, www.suttons.co.uk, from February 14th and 50p from each pack will be donated to supporting the Torquay United Community Sports Trust.
Hasta El Gol Siempre 