KitAid Monthly Update – July 2023

Hi all,

I hope you are all well and your optimism for the new season and your team continues beyond next month’s update!!

July has been an incredibly busy month in terms of organising things, but for once, the amount of kit dispatched has dropped, with less time available for visits to the containers.  However, we are now so close to the finishing line in terms of reaching 1,000,000 donated items, the tape is just a hair’s breadth away! Here are the latest totals:

Items of kit donated in July                       1.690 

Items of kit donated in 2023                  65,940

Items of kit donated since 1998        999,837

Items of kit needed to reach 1M                 163

The champagne is on ice for Friday 8 September, and the celebration evening.

25th Anniversary Celebration

Tickets   We have received some late cancellations which means we do have a few tickets available for anyone who would like to join the party. Please let me know if you would like to attend or increase the number of friends in your group and we will allocate them on a first come basis. I have handed out and posted as many tickets as possible and most of you should now have received them. If not, please drop me an email with your postal address.

Story Book   The 25 year history of KitAid has been written, photos have been sourced and Carole (Parsons), our designer, now has the tricky task of getting it to fit within 20 pages and to make it look good. Thank you Carole, I am sure it will look great when it is given out to everyone on the night.  There will also be copies for everyone who cannot attend as well as an online version.

Raffle/Auction   Thank you to everyone who has donated a raffle/auction prize. We could still use some more, especially for the auction. Does anyone have access to tickets for either a sporting event, a show or a music event which they could let us have?

Joining Details   I will send out an email closer to the date to cover all of the basic details such as parking, dress code, gate entry, taxis etc.

The music, guest speakers, running order have now all been booked and we are looking forward to having a party to celebrate 25 years of KitAid and the incredible 1,000,000 milestone.

25 for 25 Challenge

Many congratulations to Matt (Tutton) on completing his challenge of running 25 laps around the pitch at Hitchin Town FC before their friendly game against Watford FC Academy. It wasn’t an easy task and Matt completed the 8km run in under 45 minutes and well before kick off time! Thanks also to Ian (Dell) who ran with Matt for some of the time to keep him motivated.

If you would like to sponsor Matt, his Just Giving page is still open and it can be accessed via the stories about his run on our Twitter/FB and Instagram sites and here!

Thanks also to Karen. Peter and Barrie who are pressing on with their challenges.

To date all of the challenges have raised £1,400 and it would be great if we could get this to £2,500 by the end of the year. The challenge doesn’t have to be a physical one, it could be anything really, as long as it involves 25 of something.

Belfast/Airdrie visits

Self funded flying visits were made to Belfast and Airdrie a couple of weeks ago to the Ballysillan YFC Football Camp, which we sponsored, and to Diamonds in the Community in Airdrie.

The Ballysillan visit was more poignant this year as we were able to pay our respects to Grace, and to present a glass trophy in her memory to the team. 74 boys and girls attended the football camp and had a brilliant week, which they will remember for years to come. More importantly, they all now have access to the wonderful support the BYFC team gives all year round.

The visit to Diamonds in the Community was also inspiring as we were shown around their centre and were able to get a good insight into all of the different support activities they offer. As well as being the main collecting hub for Scotland for KitAid. We even managed to get to the Airdrie v Dundee match to see the Diamonds win.

There will be presentations by both charities at the 25th Anniversary celebration, and they will both be inspiring and moving.

E-banking

KitAid will soon be entering the 21st century as we move into the heady world of online banking!!

Many thanks to Sean (McGuigan) and to Mark (Smith) our past and present Treasurers for patiently sitting through long meetings with Santander, as we had to prove we weren’t international money launderers! Fortunately we passed all of the tests and will soon be able to file the cheque book away and pay people instantly.

Watford FC away shirt

Many thanks to the commercial team at Watford FC for setting up a scheme where fans can receive a 20% discount for a new away shirt if they donate an old WFC shirt to KitAid. The scheme was agreed without us applying or having any contact, which is a sign of how KitAid is respected by the Club.

Thank you to everyone reading this update and to all of our volunteers. We have achieved so much in the past 25 years and it would not have been possible without your support. This really shows in the 25 Year story book and I look forward to sharing it with everyone soon.

Many thanks

Derrick