April was another busy month with kit donations to 10 different countries across Africa,  Here are the new totals,

Total number of items donated in April  –  6,080

Total number of items donated in 2023  –  43,215

Total number of items donated since 1998 –  977,112

Total number of items still to donate to reach 1M  –  22,888 

As you can see, we are now into the final quarter and I am confident we will reach 1 Million by the start of the new season.

25th Anniversary Celebration

Thank you to everyone who has bought a ticket and I am delighted to report that the initial 100 seats have now completely sold out.

We have agreed with the venue to increase the attendance to 120 and we now only have 7 tickets left. If you want to attend please let me know by return. It promises to be a memorable evening.

We do need some help though in the following areas

Auction prizes

Thank you to Ian D who responded to last month’s request by donating a “four ball” golf day at his club in Royston. We still need some more prizes though and particularly the “experience” type of event. Do you know anyone who works in events who might donate a prize?

Music entertainment

Unfortunately we have lost our previous opera singer as she is away on 8 September. We have tried another couple of options but they are both performing on the night. We are looking for a single entertainer, not a group, who ideally has limited equipment and a realistic performing fee!  If you know of anyone suitable please let me know.

25for25 Challenge

Congratulations and many thanks to Ben Wildman who has completed his challenge of swimming 25 lengths on 25 consecutive days in April. Ben also beat his target and has raised £300 in sponsorship.

Barrie Neal is making great progress in his challenge of visiting 25 grounds across Essex and he has set up a special twitter site with posts at each ground visited. See Twitter @Trip2023E and his JustGiving page at justgiving.com/page/roadtrip-...

I am aware that some others are in the process of arranging challenges and please let me know how you are getting on so we can report back on your progress. If you need the guide to setting up your JustGiving site please let me know.

Afi the Golfer

You will recall from last month’s update that Afi was due to play in a tournament in the USA after finally getting her visa.  Fafali pulled out all of the stops and somehow raised the sponsorship needed for her and an accompanying adult to travel to Houston.

Bearing in mind the travelling distance from Accra, jetlag, excitement and nerves, not surprisingly she wasn’t at her best form during the tournament and the event organisers commented on her equipment being inferior to other competitors.

However, it looks likely that Afi will be offered a golf scholarship once she is old enough and the event organisers are now planning on visiting Fafali in Accra with a view to sponsoring a golf academy to give more children an opportunity to play.

Well done Fafali and very well done Afi, an inspirational story that will hopefully give opportunities to more children in Ghana.

Regional volunteers

Our regional volunteers all do a fantastic job in collecting kit, storing it all as well as promoting KitAid in their areas. We are really fortunate to have so many volunteers all across the UK doing their bit.

In April three of the volunteers hired vans and drove hundreds of miles to drop the kit off at our storage containers in Hemel Hempstead. More handed over kit to charities in their area who would otherwise have had to travel to Hertfordshire.

The regional volunteer role is key to the success of KitAid and it is a role that could go unnoticed.  A very big thank you to all of our regional volunteers, your support is greatly appreciated.

Charity feedback

I thought I would share the following feedback from Fr Jude Lawsamba in Cameroon, which captures the spirit of KitAid

“Words are inadequate to express how grateful I am for the kit donation from your charity to us. This donation will go a long way to help our children back home who have a dream of playing football”

We also appeared in the Reading Today newspaper who started the article describing us as a “World renowned charity” 

And to think it all began 25 years ago with a single box of shirts……………

Thanks everyone for your support

Derrick

I would like to welcome Shelagh from Sheffield and George from Basingstoke who have recently joined the team as Regional Volunteers for their areas.  Welcome to Team KitAid.

March has been another busy month and here are the key highlights.

Totals

12,635 items sent out in March

37,135 items sent out in 2023

971,032 items sent out since 1998

28,968 items to go until we reach 1,000,000 items donated!! I predict we will reach the magic milestone at some point in June.

25th Anniversary Celebration

Friday 8th September, Watford FC -Ticket price £30

As expected for the hottest tickets in town, within just a couple of weeks of going on sale, we have almost reached our maximum sales figure of 100 tickets.  There are still some available so please reply quickly if you wish to attend. Thanks to everyone who has already paid and next month we will send out further details and gather dietary requirements etc.

The evening is taking shape with a special band booked and some entertaining speakers, a nostalgic look back at the previous 25 year highlights and a lovely KitAid evening for all.

Auction prizes

We have started to gather some great auction items but need help in finding some more. Especially event/experience type prizes such as match day tickets or attendance at a special event. If you know of anyone who can help with this please contact them and share our wonderful 25 year successes.

25 for 25 Challenge

Many congratulations to Barrie N, our Regional Volunteer for Chelmsford, who has reached his fundraising target of £250 already. Barrie set himself a challenge of visiting 25 football grounds across Essex and although he has not yet finished, he has made some great contacts from Clubs he has met. He told the Secretary of Runwell Sports FC about his challenge and they very generously donated £200 and also agreed to put a KitAid banner on display.

Well done Barrie and good luck to Ben W who will be starting his swimming challenge in April. If you haven’t yet signed up for a challenge and would like details please let me know.

Liverpool FC Foundation

We would like to offer our thanks to the LFC Foundation team for their very generous support last Saturday at their Legends fundraising game.

We have a long standing relationship with the Foundation and they have donated a lot of kit over many years. In recognition of our 25th Anniversary year they very kindly presented a special “KitAid 25” shirt pitchside at half time. It was somewhat overwhelming walking out of the tunnel, under the famous LFC logo, in front of 50,000 supporters, but an incredible experience.

Thanks to Trustee Janet N, for arranging everything with the team at LFC Foundation.

KitAid Supporters Cup

You may remember that we were unable to present the Cup last November as the match between Leverstock Green and Aylesbury Vale Dynamoes ended in a 2-2 draw following a 93rd minute equaliser!  Our friends at LG went on to win the away leg 4-2, but we were unable to attend on the night.

The plan is to present the Cup at their home game tomorrow (1st April), but I have a feeling this may be scuppered by the constant rain today and over the last few days. We have already had to get the engraving changed from 2022 to 2023 so fingers crossed they get their hands on the Cup this week, month, year!!

Boots

Football boots are highly sought after at all of the projects we support and as much as possible, we share those that we receive to the different projects.  We have recently started to work more closely with the charity, Charity Boots, from North London, and they were offered a substantial donation of 2,000 pairs of brand new boots.  We have taken delivery and are helping them with temporary storage and they have donated 1,000 pairs to KitAid.

We have already passed on half of the total to partners such as FOMO Malawi and the rest will go quickly. This is a great example of small charities working together and we have always supported sharing of opportunities, contacts and knowledge as much as possible.

Social Media

I am sure you are aware that we post almost every day on Twitter, Instagram and FB and we have nearly 4,000 followers on Twitter.  However, with the imminent changes by Mr M, Twitter will become much less user friendly and not as easy to see our posts. We are certainly not going to pay for a blue tick!!

Can I suggest that you start to follow KitAidCharity on Instagram so you do not miss out on the wonderful photos and film clips we receive from the projects we support.

Well I think these are the main highlights for March and please, if you do wish to attend the 25th Anniversary Celebration on 8th September, let me know by return.

Many thanks for your help and support.

Derrick

January has been another really busy month with a staggering amount of kit coming our way, which is exactly what we like as we head for the millionth item.  Here are the monthly figures

10,710 items of kit sent out in January 2023

944,607 items of kit donated since 1998

55,393 items still to donate to reach 1 Million.

Here are the highlights for January

Welcome/ Kilimanjaro climb

A very warm welcome to Ian and Keith, our newest Regional Co-ordinators for Royston and Great Missenden.

Both Ian and Keith completed the incredibly daunting task of making it to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro after months of training and some pretty scary experiences.  I met them both late last year to hand over kit to take out for schools, orphanages and teams in Moshi, Tanzania. They did so before their climb and took some wonderful photos, which have been really well received on our sites. Articles are also going to appear in the Watford FC matchday programme, the Watford Observer and a supporter magazine.

Well done both and we are delighted to have converted you to KitAid supporters!

25th Anniversary Celebration

Over recent weeks work has started on finding a suitable venue for our big celebration later this year.  Thanks to Barry F for helping me either look at or to review a number of different options. We have chosen our preferred venue, which we think you will all like, but need to hold back on an official announcement as it is dependent on us receiving sponsorship. Please keep Friday 8 September free in your diary and, once we have agreed sponsorship, we can announce the venue.

25for25 Fund Raiser

You may remember I mentioned this idea a few months ago and we are looking for as many supporters as possible to take part in this challenge. The challenge is of your choice, but it simply has to involve completing 25 of something and getting sponsorship, or just making  a donation.

A few examples –  completing 25 lengths of your swimming pool, running 25 miles over 25 days, abstaining from alcohol/chocolate for 25 days….. You can decide on the challenge and we have created a special “25for25” Just Giving page which you can link up to.

You will receive a special certificate, and we can feature your challenge on the website/social media sites if you wish.

Matt Tutton is looking to launch the challenge by running around the pitch at Hitchin Town 25 times before a game. Lets hope he finishes before 3pm!

Please support this as not only do we need the funds but it could be a great PR opportunity. Please let me know if you would like to take up a”25for25” challenge.

San Marino FA

I had a Teams call with the above, after quite a few emails which seemed to get lost in translation, but we are finally making headway!

You may be aware that San Marino is one of the smallest footballing nations, with only three full time professionals, and not surprisingly, they are also one of the least successful. I may be wrong but I am not sure if they have ever won a game? However, their supporters are wonderful and they have collected shirts which they want to donate to KitAid. San Marino FA also want to donate a full National team kit.

We are discussing the best way of getting the kit to us and once it is received we will arrange to ship it out to Malawi and form a new team, which will be called San Marino Malawi FC!!

Netball kits

We are conscious that most of the girls who play netball in Malawi do not have proper kits and mostly play in t-shirts and shorts. We have built a really good relationship with Hertfordshire Netball and with Sally Whittle who also sits within England Netball. Last Saturday we attended the East of England Schools Netball tournament and collected a number of kits and training wear. This coming weekend we will also attend the Hertfordshire League meeting which is run over two days.

Thanks to Mark S who joined me at a very cold Welwyn Garden City outside netball arena and to those who will also do the same this coming weekend.  The girls will really appreciate our efforts and it is only fair that they should wear proper kit as they are competing against other teams who are properly dressed.

Thank You certificates/Annual Review 22/23

All Regional Co-ordinators should have received a package of certificates, either by post or in person.  If you haven’t, please let me know and I will get some to you.

I will soon start work writing the new Annual Review and if you have any ideas or thoughts on what you would like to see included, please email me. It is a labour of love and it does take quite a few drafts to get it to print, so please bear with me and keep using the current AR until it is ready.

KitAid Calendar 2023

Hallelujah, they eventually arrived!!

This was a surprise as we did think the company had gone out of business and those who ordered early would be let down.  Thankfully they arrived a couple of weeks ago, although it remains to be seen if we will receive our share of the sales. As we acted quickly and advised people not to order we have lost out on a useful fundraising opportunity, but at least they arrived before 2024!

The journey of a shirt

We often discuss the journey an individual shirt or kit makes before it arrives at its destination.  This morning I handed over some kit to a guy from Ghana who was determined to support his project and his community. I wrongly assumed he was collecting the kit by car and he was coming from Hounslow, near Heathrow airport, so not really that far.  He caught a bus, then a train into central London, the tube to Euston, an overground train to Berkhamsted, and a taxi to the containers. Just the taxi fare to and from Berkhamsted cost him £22. He left with a suitcase jammed full of wonderful Brighton, Barnsley and Peterborough kit and he was overjoyed. He is flying out to Ghana on Saturday, will hand out the kit next week and return the following Saturday.

This is what makes all of your support and hard work so worthwhile. He was so thankful and happy and this will be replicated many times over when the kit is handed out next week.

Best wishes and thanks

Derrick

Most months are busy for KitAid but October has been off the scale in terms of the amount of kit donated and received. Here are the latest totals

Total amount of kit donated in October         20,825 items

Total amount of kit donated in 2022               92,280 items

Total amount of kit donated since 1998         913,232 items

We also donated kit to projects in Colombia and Ecuador for the first time.

As you will see, this means that we are now in the final straight to reach our dream milestone of donating 1 Million items of kit. We should definitely get there next year in our 25th Anniversary year.

Boxing Up – Hatfield and Liverpool

After a break of six months in Hatfield and three years in Liverpool, we have held two sessions in successive weekends and they were both wonderful.

The first one at Hatfield went like clockwork and it is hard to believe we were ever away. It was also really lovely to meet some of the Regional Coordinators who came for the first time, Antonia and Izzy from Bristol and Chris from Carterton. We would love to see more of you at each session so please do consider a visit if you can as you will get to meet the team and see how your donations make a difference.

The session at Liverpool was also great and a big thank you to Richie and Paul from the Everton Heritage Society, the volunteers from Everton in the Community and to Trustee Janet. We also welcomed RC Lindsay from Durham for her first visit, who set off at 5-00am to get to Liverpool on time, and she brought some work colleagues from Value-Match to help boost the numbers.

It is great to be able to hold boxing up sessions again and thank you to everyone who helped. There should be another session in December at Hatfield and probably Spring time in Liverpool.

KitAid Supporters Cup – 12th November, 3-00pm Leverstock Green FC

This is a new event and a trial to see how it works out.  If it is a success we can expand things next year to include more KitAid supporting Clubs.

The match will be between Leverstock Green FC and Aylesbury Vale Dynamoes FC, who both play in the Spartan South Midlands League, which is Step 5 of Non League Football. Both Clubs have been supportive of KitAid and the AVD manager is a friend from my time at the WFC Community Trust. He suggested making the game into a KitAid event and both Clubs have agreed. We have bought a lovely Cup to present to the winners on 12 November.

If you are within travelling distance we would love to see you there. Leverstock Green is just outside Hemel Hempstead and very close to the M1, Junction 8.  It is a lovely Club with a Clubhouse and free parking. Entry is £8 but less for anyone of a certain age and juniors.

25th Anniversary

Following on from the email and your replies we have formed a small committee to investigate some potential events.

We have narrowed things down to three main events/activities.

25th Anniversary Celebration – Listening to your feedback we have decided against a formal black tie dinner due to the cost of living situation, but instead, are looking at a less formal gathering along the lines of our last event in 2018.  This will be dependent on us getting sponsorship and we are currently waiting to hear from Affinity Water, who have agreed to contact some potential supporters.

25 for 25 – This received positive feedback and it is something that can run throughout the whole year. It will be a sponsored event where supporters can choose from a number of challenges, all based around the 25 theme. So for example, swim 25 lengths, stop drinking alcohol for 25 days, walk 25 miles or simply donate £25. It is unlimited really and people can choose their own 25 themed activity.

2023 Calendar – We wanted to include this as a calendar is on display throughout the whole year. We are planning to use the same company as last time, so they only print to order and there is no risk of us being left with unsold calendars.  If things go to plan we should be able to start selling them in November and details will follow.

There will also be special 25th Anniversary and badges and polo shirts for sale.

San Marino FA

Just one of the many great things about KitAid is the strange contacts and offers of support we receive!

I received an email from someone at the San Marino FA asking if they could support our work. They have a number of shirts donated by their fans which they want to pass on to us and then to create a partnership. You may be aware that San Marino hardly ever win a game and I think they are close to the bottom of the FIFA World Rankings. This in itself appealed to me, to think that despite their lack of success they want to help develop football in Africa.

FOMO/KitAid League – Mulanje District – Malawi

As you know we have a very close partnership with FOMO Malawi and the KitAid FC U14/U17 teams.

Mary Woodworth who is the driving force behind all of the FOMO sporting events has decided to set up her own district league for football and netball. It will involve 80 teams across all districts and circa 1,200 children. This is something the Malawi FA should really be doing but Mary has taken it on as sadly they are not proactive.

KitAid will be supplying all of the children with kits and we are also looking to make a donation towards the £3,000 running costs. If anyone knows of a grant making body who can also contribute towards this great project please let me know.

Barry Lenton

Many of you will be aware of or know Barry, the KitAid super collector from Crosby! He is also the club historian for AFC Marine an an author.  He also taught Jamie Carragher Geography!!

He has now collected over 21,500 items of kit for us and I was finally able to catch up with him and present a trophy in recognition of this amazing achievement. Barry has also kept a spreadsheet which details every item and from which club the donation was made.

Many thanks Barry – you are a superstar.

Well I think that is everything on my October list, apart from to thank all of you for your ongoing support. Many thanks to all of the Regional Co-ordinators who do such a fantastic job in the background collecting and storing kit for us. Also to those who are able to deliver the kit to either Hatfield or Hemel Hempstead, saving us a £150 courier collection fee.

Have a good November and do look out for the pictures and updates on @kitaid Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Many thanks

Derrick