After the milestone month of September it was back to reality again, but October was another successful month. Here are the new totals and the highlights:

Total items of kit donated = 7,910
Total items of kit donated in 2023 = 82,390
Total items of kit donated since 1998 = 1,016,042

Hertfordshire FA Award

At the Hatfield boxing up session on 7 October we were delighted and surprised to be presented with a Special Recognition Award as part of the 2023 County Grassroots Football Awards. Many thanks to Herts FA CEO Karl Lingham and to Communications Manager Stuart Mugford for including KitAid in this year’s awards .

It is great for KitAid to receive recognition for all of the hard work carried out by everyone. I can now retire my soapbox and update our trophy cabinet!!

Congratulations to Ben (and Sandeep)

Many congratulations to both Ben and Sandeep on the birth of their first baby, Caleb Benjamin Wildman, who arrived on the 5th October. Many of you will know Ben who is the Regional Coordinator for North Kent and South London, as well as a regular boxing up attendee.
Ben is also managing our Linkedin and YouTube posts in between bottle feeds and catching up on sleep!
Good luck Ben and we look forward to seeing Caleb joining you at Hatfield in a few years time.

FOMO Malawi Football & Netball Bonanza

Following the 25th Anniversary Celebration we were very fortunate to receive some donations from supporters. Many thanks to the Taylor Family, Tony Smart and to Hertfordshire FA.

We have decided to pool the donations, holding some amount back to meet running costs, but with the majority used to sponsor the Bonanza. We have sponsored this before and some of us have witnessed the wonderful event, which this year will be held between Christmas and New Year.

More than 1,000 children from the 14 Orphan Support Centres in Mulanje will take part in both football and netball tournaments. It is a wonderful event which the children really look forward to, as they are given treats, special food and prizes. There will be regular updates on our sites each day so do look out for the film clips.

Our sponsorship of the Bonanza also helps FOMO as they are struggling to cope with the increased food prices as well as more children coming to the Centres as they are so hungry. This is largely a result of the cyclone which devastated crops in the south of Malawi and pushed up food prices.

25 for 25 Challenge

A very big thank you to the six supporters who have taken on a challenge and between themselves, have so far raised £2,200.

We still have two months to go as the Challenge was intended to run across the whole of our 25th Anniversary year.

Can we reach our target of raising £2,500, either with another couple of participants or by sponsoring Karen Austin, who is still completing her challenge of running 25 x 5km runs. Karen has so far completed 22 runs and her final run will be in Auckland, New Zealand on Christmas Eve.

If you are able to sponsor Karen, here is a link to her Just Giving page
https://trk.justgiving.com/f/a/TJk-tTZMiMlFhr1oRNrVwQ~~/AAME8QA~/RgRmRjbFP0T2aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuanVzdGdpdmluZy5jb20vcGFnZS9rLWF1c3Rpbi0xNjg0MjU0NTE3NjE1P3V0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1sY19mcnBfc2hhcmVfdHJhbnNhY3Rpb25fdHJhbnNhY3Rpb25hbF8tLV9wYWdlX2xhdW5jaGVkXy0tX2NhbXBhaWduJnV0bV9jb250ZW50PTY2ZTI0YTAwLWJhYTctNDM5Ni1hYzhiLTdlYTcwMmI2NzkwNCZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9zb3VyY2U9cG9zdG9mZmljZSZ1dG1fdGVybT0xNjg0MjU1MTcxOTE2VwNzcGNCCmRixbFjZK5rKiNSFGthcmVuYXVzdGluMjZAbWUuY29tWAQAAAAD

KitAid Promotional Flyers

As we have now reached the One Million milestone I have started to update promotional material and the first is the A5 Flyer. Next week I will receive 2,000 copies and if you would like some please let me know. Next on the list is the 2024 Thank You certificate and I am also working with Carole on getting some quotes to print 1,000 copies of an updated version of the 25th Anniversary brochure.

I am hoping to share an exciting announcement about a special fundraising walk soon, which should be a great event for those who enjoy visiting football grounds in the London area!

I think that is all of the news for October and as ever, many thanks for all of your support. KitAid couldn’t exist without it.

Best wishes
Derrick