Many thanks to the guys from the Watford fan podcast, DNSYE, for allowing me to spend 40 plus minutes sharing the history of KitAid. It is great to be given so much airtime as most radio interviews tend to be no longer than 10 to 15 minutes.

We covered a lot and the feedback has been great, including a nice tweet from Luther Blissett.

We hope you enjoy listening.

June and July have both been extremely busy for KitAid, with a lot of kit coming in and going out.  Here are the totals for each month.

 

June  –                                          6,020 items donated

July  –                                          12,250 items donated

Total donated so far in 2022  –   57,140

Total donated since 1998  –        878,092

 

We are still on track to reach the 1 Million total in late 2023, our 25th Anniversary year.

 

Sean McGuigan

On behalf of the Trustees I would like to thank Sean for his many years of service as a Trustee and Treasurer. He also manages our Charity Commission returns and has done a fantastic job ensuring that they are always submitted on time.

Sean has decided to take a break after much soul searching and has stepped down as a Trustee. He has kindly agreed to continue as Treasurer until the end of the year, to allow a handover to take place.

Mark Smith has kindly offered to take on the Treasurer role and Sean will be offering guidance over the coming months.

Sean will still continue as a volunteer so fear not, his eclectic mega mixes will still be there at future Hatfield boxing up sessions!

Thanks Sean, it has been great working with you all these years.

 

Ballysillan Football Camp, Belfast

After a two year break due to Covid the Football Camp resumed a couple of weeks ago and Steve Andersen and myself attended on the final day.

It was lovely to see the boys and girls enjoying themselves and the team from BYFC did a fantastic job. In fact, football is almost an aside as it gives them the opportunity to mentor the kids and to get to know new ones. They run a brilliant Youth Centre with activities and support throughout the year and this often continues in later life, as Peter and his team act as surrogate parents for many of the kids.

This year marked the 15th Anniversary of our support for the project and we presented a special glass “friendship” trophy, which was kindly donated by 5 Star Trophies of Hemel Hempstead.

 

Fafali Golf

This is slightly off topic but a fascinating story!

Fafali, who we support with football projects in Accra, Ghana, have been given access to one of the main golf courses for the kids they support. It turned out that one of the girls, Afi, proved to be incredibly talented, and she recently won the Ghana Junior Championship. As a result she was eligible to play in the World Junior event but sadly her visa didn’t arrive in time and so she lost the opportunity to play and visit Scotland.

Her Aunt is Rhoda, who lives in Watford, who we know well as she is the person who collects donated kit to send to Fafali. Afi is now coming over to stay in Watford and we have been asked to help enter her into Junior tournaments across Hertfordshire in August and September. I have agreed to help with the admin for the entries. Thanks to Jez and Ross who are both keen golfers, for helping me with questions so far.

We are looking to enter Afi into as many competitions as possible and if there are any female readers, due to Safeguarding rules, we could really do with some help in driving Afi to and from events. If you are able to help please let me know.

Who knows, we could have a future KitAid Golf Champion as an Ambassador!

 

Everton FC

Thanks to Richie (Gillham), one of our Liverpool RC’s, Fanatics, the company who manage the retail side of things for a number of clubs, offered to give a 10% discount off a new shirt if supporters donated an old shirt. Richie has been suggesting this to Fanatics and Everton FC for some time and his perseverance paid off.

Fanatics are also going to run a similar campaign at another PL Club and it is great to have them on board.

 

Club support

Thanks to the efforts of various RC’s we have received donations from new Clubs in the last couple of months, namely Morecambe FC (thanks Barrie), Lincoln City (thanks Thomas) as well as some big donations from Arsenal, Man Utd and Liverpool. We also had a very big donation from Harpenden Colts which filled 8 laundry bags, thanks to Ed and Lindsey Venner.

 

Ricky Road Run/Finances

Thanks to the (virtual) Ricky Road Run we received a donation of £1,700. We currently have a clear balance of just over £10,000, which may seem a lot, but every month we have to spend £486 for container hire and £125 for every courier collection. We can spend around £800 a month which will erode the £10k if no further donations are received.  We have also sponsored 3 events so far this year.

If you happen to know any National Lottery winners or some grant making organisations or even anyone who is looking to raise funds for a charity, please ask them to consider KitAid. As next year is our 25th Anniversary I would like to hold a themed 25 fundraising event where we ask people to raise or donate £25. If you have any ideas please let me know.

 

Diamonds in the Community/Scotland

We have a long standing relationship with Dougie in Airdrie and along with Gordon in Stenhousemuir, they both act as the contact point for the whole of Scotland.  This is a big task and quite incredible that a whole country can be covered by just two people.

Diamonds in the Community is a great charity and they support their community in many different ways.  They also act as the main storage hub for kit donations and recently a lorry load of kit was delivered by one of their partners, free of charge, from Airdrie to the FOMO warehouse in Preston, for later delivery to Malawi. Thank You to Dougie and Gordon.

 

Ghana Trip

One of the charities we support in Ghana is organising a holiday with a difference, where people can deliver our kit to projects but also enjoy a holiday at the same time. KitAid cannot endorse the trip but if anyone is interested in attending for a week in October, I can share the details, It costs circa £1,500 for the week and you have to pay for your flights to/from Ghana.

Well I think that is everything apart from thanking you all for your support and hard work behind the scenes.  As you can see from the monthly totals, none of the above would be possible if it wasn’t for the work you all do. Many thanks.

Enjoy the rest of the Summer and the new season!

 

Derrick