Thank you for your support in 2022.

Final figures are still to come, but so far in 2022 we have donated a massive 111,695 items of kit and 932,647 items since 1998

We look forward to reaching 1 Million items next year, in our 25th Anniversary year.

Happy Christmas from KitAid

November was another really busy month with kit either leaving or arriving at the containers most days.  Here are the monthly totals

 

Total items sent in November  –  13,850

Total items sent so far in 2022 –  106,130

Total items sent since 1998      –  927,082

 

Countries supported – Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Ukraine, Colombia, DR Congo, Tanzania, The Philippines, Libya.

Even though I say it myself, I do think this is quite impressive for a volunteer-run charity, with a minimal budget and little recognition, to reach so many different countries. We are also edging ever closer to the milestone figure of 1 Million items of donated kit. My guess is that we will reach this by next July.

 

25th Anniversary 2023 calendars

Hopefully you will have seen the email I sent out last week with the link to order your copy. It is a really nice calendar with pictures representing our work across the globe. If you are still to order or have lost the email, here is the link to Ask Calendars site  https://www.askonline.shop/collections/kitaid

Please support this fundraiser if you can as we do need to sell as many calendars as we can to help meet our running costs.

 

England Netball

I have attended a couple of meetings with England Netball in November to discuss running a netball kit collection across Hertfordshire. This has now been agreed and plans are in place for one collection to be held at the National Schools Netball Tournament on 28 January, where schools from across the whole of the UK will compete at Stanborough School in Welwyn Garden City.

A second collection will be held with all Hertfordshire based Netball Clubs in early February.

This is a great opportunity and hopefully a lot of kit will be collected to support the new Netball League in Mulanje, Malawi.

Interestingly we also received a great donation of kit from the England National Badminton centre and it is lovely kit which can also be used for netball.

 

KitAid Supporters Cup

Due to a 92nd minute equaliser by Aylesbury Vale Dynamoes, against Leverstock Green FC, the inaugural KitAid Supporters Cup could not be presented to either team. It finished 3-3.

I don’t think I have ever been so frustrated by an injury time goal! However, a few of the KitAid team had an enjoyable afternoon at the game and as we also sponsored the game, we had the pleasure of joining the club officials in the boardroom at half time as well as choosing the Man of the Match.

We will look to carry the trophy over to the return match in January.

 

Everton FC 

At the boxing up session in October we handed over some Everton FC kit to a volunteer who was about to go out to Ghana to work at a school. He sent photos back of the kit being used and Richie, the Regional Co-ordinator, submitted a story to the Everton press office.

They then released the story across their official social media sites and this really showed the power of a good photo and story.

There were thousands of views and the story was also covered by the Liverpool Echo and the FC Business magazine.

This is why photos are so important for KitAid as well as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

 

Do Not Scratch Your Eyes podcast

This podcast is run by Watford FC supporters and it is becoming one of the main voices for Hornet fans.

I was given 30 minutes to tell the KitAid story a few months ago and since then, the guys who run the site have been very supportive of our work. Last week they announced they are moving on to a bigger platform, which hosts some of the really big sites and is linked to Talk Sport. They will also be releasing merchandise and half of the proceeds will be donated to KitAid.

 

Couriers

We are looking for another courier company as back up, as the companies we currently use are struggling with driver shortages. If you know of a reliable and good value company who cover the UK for collections and deliveries, could you please let me know.

 

25th Anniversary Celebration

We have started work on planning for the big 25th Anniversary/1 Million donated items event for 2023.

We are still waiting to hear if Affinity Water can help with sponsorship and this is critical in terms of the type of event we hold. Depending on sponsorship, it will either be a hotel based buffet event, similar to the 20th Anniversary, or a garden party/club house event. As it is such a significant milestone we would prefer to make it a hotel type event.

If you have any suggestions on sponsorship, venue, entertainment, auction items we would love to hear from you.

 

25th Anniversary merchandise

We have ordered some polo shirts with the new special logo and these will be available for £15, including p&p.

There will also be special badges, available for £5.

More information will follow with photos in the next monthly update, but if you would like to place an order in advance please reply stating the required size.

 

 

Well I think that is everything for November and I hope you find this update interesting and of use.

Many thanks for your support, which is what makes KitAid exist.

Very best wishes

Derrick