President David Barnes early in the year said it was the club's mission to involve itself more community and fundraising events. And this time the Vikings' spirit is going a lot further than the local area.

The club is organising a drive for one of their opposition's players, Kempsey Cannonballs' Viliame "Billy" Tobesewa.

The Kempsey club imported the Fijian last season.

Tobesewa is returning to his small Raiwaqa village soon to marry his fianc e. When the Vikings players heard about how passionate the villagers are about rugby and that most play barefoot, they decided to do what they could to help out.

Thanks to the Vikings, Tobesewa will return with boots, jerseys, balls and anything else the club can find to hand out to the players.

Vikings coach Andrew Kable said the club was only happy to help out. "Billy is a great bloke and when we heard the stories about them playing barefoot we had to help out, it's a great cause," he said.

"We've asked around for everyone to donate their used boots and most players you'll find will always have a couple of pairs lying around.

"We did a bit of a clean out to a while ago, and found a heap of balls with the grip starting to fad off which we couldn't use as match balls so we're sending those over too."

The rugby player heads back to his home village tomorrow.

Anyone interested in donating gear can call club president David Barnes on 0402 371 752 .

At the time of print Tobesewa had half-filled a shipping container to make the trip with him.