This morning ( 6 December) we held our final boxing up session for 2014 and we have broken all previous records.

The total number of boxes sent out during the year amounted to 1,201 and we sorted, packed and donated a massive 42,035 individual items of kit.

This brings the overall total since 1998 to an incredible figure of 262,035.

I do find it absolutely amazing that we can source that much kit, collect it from all over the country, sort it and then find the charities to come and collect it all, over 12 monthly Saturday morning boxing up sessions. It then finds its way from Hatfield to all across Africa, South America, Asia and Eastern Europe. Seriously well done everyone for making that many people smile and feel special.

As we say, it really is more than just a shirt.

• Airdrieonians FC visit 8 November
• Attendance at the Herts FA Coaching seminar
• Boxing up 15 November
• Mitzvah Day collections 16 November 

All of the above will be great events and I will post more details in next months update, but if you do want any info before then please let me know.

Many of you will know our involvement with this project and how we have sponsored the week long footy camp for quite a few years now. I always come back from our trip to Belfast really inspired and full of admiration for the great work Peter and his team do for the young people in north Belfast.

He recently sent a report of this years footy camp with some feedback on the impact it had made on a couple of the boys who attended. Here are the details

"What an amazing week my son Luke, along with 70 odd other boys was fortunate enough to be part of this year again. Football, fresh air exercise, team work, confidence building, banter, making new friends and generally just having fun and enjoying themselves with fab role models at the legendary BlueHouses football camp. We are truly blessed in Ballysillan to have Ballysillan Youth for Christ in our area and I for one am extremely grateful for everything you do for our kids and subsequently our area. I've said before what a novel way to spread such an important message. Super people doing a super job. Or as my young son calls them 'The Christians with the X-box' ",Lee Conville

From a family support worker who referred a 10 year old to the camp……

"Before Blue Houses involvement, he was not involved in any social activities and was very reluctant to do so. The family had limited funding and there were behavioral problems at home. Since being part of the Summer Football Camp, not only has he developed a real enthusiasm for the sport, he has also grown in self confidence and belief.

He has now joined his local football team, which involves training twice a week and a match on Saturday. From this, he is learning to work as team and to take the winning with the losing! He enjoys it so much that he will be bringing his younger brothers to join the club too! This has helped developed his social circle and ability to interact with others. It has had a grave impact on the family home as now he has learnt to re-focus his energy that was previously being used in a negative way. It has been amazing to see such a change in his life and how it can impact the family as a whole. A massive thank you to all involved."

Thanks to Peter for arranging another really good collection at FC United. We travelled up in the KitAid Tour Bus, (Kenny Lawrence’s van), and we had a great day. This was the fifth collection we have held with the club and it was evident that we are becoming well known with their fans.

We also had some players donating kit and other clubs ( Stalybridge Celtic and Grantham Town) also got involved by donating kit on the day. We received some good publicity and as FC United have a big twitter following our views for the week peaked at 10,500.

Thanks again to Peter and FC United and we really hope you get the promotion you deserve after missing out in the play off final for the last three seasons. Thanks also to Kenny and Rob Lawrence who drove us there and back, provided the van and fuel all free of charge.

We were very fortunate to receive a donation of fantastic training kit from Manchester United recently from their training complex at Carrington.  Some of the kit has now found its way to a massive refugee camp in Northern Uganda which houses 100,000 displaced people who have fled South Sudan.

The kit was taken out for us by the Watford based charity, Eagles Wings and it was delivered by their founder, Bruce Oliver.  He explained that many of the people have no possessions and there is nothing to do for the thousands of young people.  The kits are now being used as part of a football project where teams wear it in inter zone matches and play tournaments.

As we say, it really is more than just a shirt as it brings hope where little exists.  Thanks to the kit managers at Carrington who kindly sorted and helped get it to us.