St Lucia Donation

Quite a while ago we had a meeting with a charity from St Lucia (Sacred Sports Foundation) which was set up in memory of Keith Alexander, the late manager of Lincoln City. 

I was unaware of the level of poverty in such a beautiful location and we were really impressed with their work.  We finally found a way of getting kit out to the project thanks to a great link with SAGA Travel. 

They arranged for the kit to be taken out on one of their cruise liners and they have a charitable foundation who delivered the boxes at the end of May. 

I love the tenuous ways KitAid manages to get kit across the world at no expense!!

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Airdrieonians FC

We have been approached by the supporters club of Airdrie who want to run a kit amnesty for us which they are linking in to a season ticket offer for local children.  They also have good contacts with the Tartan Army, so there is scope for the kit amnesty to be widened to a much bigger group of fans. 

The amnesty will begin once season tickets go on sale and we are thinking of arranging a trip up to Glasgow early next season to visit the club. 

If you are interested in joining us please let me know.

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KitAid small grants

One of the things I really love about KitAid is our ability to operate on a shoestring budget, but at the same time, we are able to support partner charities.

Our operating costs are about £3k per annum and as we have surplus funds from last year, we have decided to make 5 grants of £1k each.

We have contacted 5 separate charities we know and trust and have given them criteria which they must meet to qualify for the grant.

Once we have received the completed applications we will review them according to the criteria and offer each grant as appropriate.

We will let you know the outcome in next months update.

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Ballysillan, Belfast footy camp

We have sponsored the week long footy camp again this year and we are really pleased to keep our link with Peter Thompson going.

A small team from KitAid will be visiting the project for the final day of the camp in July and we are looking forward to meeting Peter and his fantastic team again.

For those of you heard him presenting at the 15th Anniversary Dinner you know how inspirational his work is and we are proud to be associated with BYFC.

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Trustee vacancy filled!

We are really pleased to report that Nick Perchard, the former CEO of Herts FA and now working for the Premier League, has accepted our invitation to fill the vacant Trustee position.  Nick will be a great addition to the team and we look forward to working with him as a Trustee.  Welcome on board Nick.

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Ricky Road Run 2014 – volunteers needed

We have been chosen as one of the charities for this years Ricky Road Run, which is great.   

To recognise their generosity, we will need to try and find some marshals to help out on the morning of the run, so if you live within driving distance of Rickmansworth, we would really like your help on Sunday 26 October. 

You could also run the 10 miles if you are up for it!!  The course is set in the Chilterns countryside but if you don’t like hills I would recommend marshalling!!

For more information about the run go to www.rickyroadrun.co.uk and if you're able to help, drop me a line on derrick.williams@affinitywater.co.uk

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Barry Lenton – 10,000 not out!!

A massive well done and thanks to Barry on hitting his target of collecting 10,000 items of kit before the end of this season.  Barry started collecting for us in January 2012 and he has meticulously documented every item, where it came from.  His spread sheet is like a who’s who of every school and generous company in Merseyside.  In addition, Barry also enlisted the help of a courier company in Liverpool to regularly collect from him and then deliver to our couriers in Harlow, at no cost to KitAid.  This in itself must have saved us a substantial amount. We are thinking of the best way to celebrate Barry’s achievement and details will appear in a future monthly update.

Thanks Barry – you are an inspiration.

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Easter kit amnesty

You may have already seen some of the publicity for the annual Easter kit amnesty held by the Evo-stik Northern Premier League.  There has been an article on their website and details have been sent to every club, along with a poster we designed for the event.

Dave Watters, who is the press officer for the league has also promoted the collection to the Ryman League as well, as he manages their website.  I have seen some interest on individual club sites, so we may get more response this year.  Once we receive requests to collect the kit I will send out a list to the most local regional co-ordinators as we have in previous years.  Any that are not close to an RC will be collected by our couriers.

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From Watford to Wamba

We have recently received this great picture showing Watford FC kit in Wamba, northern Kenya.

The kit was taken out by Clare Muir from the Swan Youth Centre in Berkhamsted along with a group of students from Ashlyn’s School. Kit was also handed out to some girls school teams as well as three other schools. A game was arranged between Man Utd and Watford (Ashlyn’s students) and not surprisingly the reds won. Watford blamed the pitch and the heat!!

Well done to all and we look forward to supporting Clare again later this year.

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Abseil for KitAid

We have been offered a couple of pre-booked slots for 2 people to abseil down the very impressive Spinakker Tower in Portsmouth. Each slot has been pre-booked for Sunday 25 May at 13.00 and they cost £85 each. We have been offered them by a supporter of KitAid in the hope that we will find a couple of willing volunteers who may be able to raise some funds for us as well as having a great time themselves.

If you or you know of anyone that is up for the challenge, please ask them to email ian.hankin@affinitywater.co.uk and he will pass all of the details on. We appreciate it is not everyone’s cup of tea, especially if you are afraid on heights, but please do try and persuade someone to rise (or descend!) to the challenge for us.

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