Ikechi Anya Auction

Ikechi has helped us with promotions in the past and he is definitely a footballer with an interest in supporting good causes.

Last week he turned up without any prior notice to the Affinity Water Head Office, to donate some great kit. 

This included one of his current season WFC shirts signed by the entire squad, 3 pairs of his boots, a Scotland international training top and a pair of his playing gloves.

He took the trouble to find us and then kindly agreed to let us auction off the items to help us with our running costs.

He was transferred to Derby County on deadline day so these are all very collectible items for WFC fans.

These items are now available for you to bid on in our auction, so please help to promote it to anyone you may know who is a WFC or Scotland fan.

 

/0 Comments

Yet another record!

At the September boxing up in Hatfield we passed the total number of boxes sent out for the whole of last year and so created another record. 

We have currently sent out 1,443 boxes beating last year's record total of 1,379 boxes.

Since 1998 we have now sorted and found a new home for 361,635 items of kit. 

That really is an impressive figure and a lot of smiles and happiness as a result of everyone's efforts.

Perhaps we should hold a sweepstake to guess the final figure for 2016.

/0 Comments

From Manchester to Zambia

One of the things that I really love about KitAid is the way we manage to transport kit across the world via a fascinating route of volunteers all doing their bit.  

I think the following story of just one kit donation really highlights this and I think it would make a brilliant film story.  

We received a request for kit via Herts FA from the father of a newly qualified doctor (Mike Bath) who was spending some time helping at a Salvation Army hospital in Zambia before starting his first job at a practice in Bedford.  

So the journey of a full Man Utd team kit started with it being delivered to Peter Moulds house in Sale from the club training ground in Carrington.  Janet Neville then picked up the kit and took it back to the Wirral ready for the boxing up session in May at Everton.  I then brought it back with me to Hemel Hempstead and after Watford's last home game of the season met up with Mike and his Dad in a pub car park in Chorleywood.  His Dad then arranged for DHL to transport it via Gatwick, Schipol  and then to Lusaka where it was picked up and taken to the hospital team who have started to pay in it.  They have subsequently asked if we can supply them with 15 pairs of boots, so the new journey will start in September when Ben Van Nes has kindly agreed to include them as a package within his container.

I really think this this is a fantastic individual story and shows how resourceful and committed KitAid is.  I am sure we can find hundreds of similar examples and one day, when I retire, I will follow the journey myself and make an Oscar winning film!!

/0 Comments

Airdrie Wee Fair

Well done to the guys from the Airdrieonians Supporters Trust who have collected 1,000 shirts so far this year at the launch of their ingenious season ticket for a shirt campaign.  

They have also promoted the kit amnesty across all of the schools in North Lanarkshire, which will potentially give KitAid access to over 50,000 school kids.  

Many thanks to Dougy and his team and good luck with the collection and for the new season. 

/0 Comments

18th Anniversary

KitAid has officially come of age and it was celebrated at the recent boxing up session in Hatfield on 2 July with a birthday cake and a small glass of Prosecco for everyone. 

It was also great on the day to reach a new milestone of 350,000 items of kit sent out since 1998, which really is an incredible amount of kit.It is enough kit for 23,333 teams and enough to fill 10,000 of our packing boxes!! 

I am always amazed to think every item has passed through the hands of at least one of our volunteers and that we have reached so many countries across the globe. if each item brought a smile and some happiness to someone then we have all done a fantastic job in bringing some light to so many people. 

Well done to everyone and thank you for helping KitAid to become what it is.  Here's to the next milestone…..

/0 Comments

1966 World Cup celebration auction

We were very fortunate to be invited to this event thanks to our partnership with Hertfordshire FA. 

The celebration was held at Homestead Court Hotel in Welwyn Garden City as this is where the West German team stayed before the final at Wembley. 

The England team also used it as a base during the early 1970's and there are some great photos of the players meeting kids as they stroll around the local area. 

We were the chosen charity for the evening and thanks to help from Herts FA we managed to pull together a variety of interesting auction items, which in total raised £590 on the night.

The hotel were very generous as they bought some but there was a flurry of late bids which made things exciting on the night. 

Once again a very big thank you the Herts FA and to Best Western Hotels for their support

/0 Comments

Storage highs and lows

We’re very sad to say that our storage container was broken into again and this time it was a targeted attack as nothing else in the yard was touched.  A few months ago the same criminals broke into it and stole some boxes of mainly second hand kit.

Each time they cause damage to the depot gates, break into a van which is parked infront of the container and then damage the security bolts.  If there is any small consolation, the container was actually empty this time, so all of their efforts were in vain.

Read more

/0 Comments

Guy Judge memorial fund

You may remember that last year that we ring fenced the fantastic donation received from Ashley Judge’s 24 Hour Premier League ground challenge, so that it could be used for a special project in Guy’s memory.

We are pleased to have now found and agreed between all parties, a great project in Zambia to use the donation of £2,600.

 

Read more

/0 Comments

Wales Online

Following receipt of some really great photos from Ismail Jama, we posted them on to Facebook and Twitter and they very quickly got noticed by a journalist writing for Wales Online as there were some of Cardiff City kits.  This is a much viewed website, especially in Wales(!), and we received some follow up contacts and more followers on our sites.  This is another example of the power of good photos,which is why we constantly ask the charities we work with to send them in.  It is also good for the clubs and we have cemented our relationship with Cardiff City as a result.

/0 Comments

Ballysillan YFC, Belfast project

We have sponsored the week long footy camp once again this year, and as I say every year, this is the most inspiring project in our annual calendar.

If anyone would like to make the annual trip to Belfast in late July please conatct us at kitaid@affinitywater.co.uk.

We always have a brilliant time, not only at the football camp, but also in Belfast City Centre on the Thursday/Friday nights.

Anyone else who has been on previous trips will be able to confirm this!  Let me know if you are interested.

/0 Comments