KitAid Kampala Cup

Well done to Stegota FC on winning the very first KAKC final on 7 June. They beat Naaj Marine 7 – 3 and lifted a beautiful trophy which you can see on their Facebook page.

Naaj Marine are linked to Marine FC in Liverpool, who we know very well through Barry Lenton. Barry has given kit and support to Naaj which is how we managed to get the game arranged.

This will now become an annual event and I am sure Naaj will be looking for revenge, and they were hampered this year by their star striker having to sit out the game as he had a boxing match the following day!!

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Wear a sports shirt to work day

Many thanks to Julian Chenery from AIG Insurance for arranging this event, which happened on Friday 13 June. I have seen press cuttings from different parts of the UK, including Devon, Cornwall and Glasgow.

Julian is in the process of collecting all the kit so we are not sure exactly how much we will receive yet.

Hopefully this will become an annual event and next year we can get even more companies involved. I have also been contacted separately by Schroders in the City, who are doing something similar for us.

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Forthcoming Events

Our diary is always busy but if you are able to help out with any of the following it would be much appreciated. 

  • Charlie Fidler Memorial Tournament – Hemel Hempstead, 6 July
  • Inet World Games – Preston, 19 July
  • FC United collection, Stalybridge, 6 September
  • Ricky Road Run, Chorleywood, 26 October

Please let me know if you are able to help by emailing derrick.williams@affinitywater.co.uk

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Manchester Utd FC

Probably one of the biggest brands in world football and a club that wouldn’t normally work with small charities like KitAid.  Well, thanks to our fantastic Patron, Graham received a call from the MUFC club secretary as their kit manager had held on to the letter Graham sent out to all 92 league clubs last year. 

Fortunately Graham knew the guy as they were both at Watford some years ago and he put in a good word for us.  Peter (Moulds) recently visited Carrington training centre and came away with 30 bin bags of training kit, followed by a further 15 boxes which they delivered to his flat last week.  Hopefully we are now on their radar and we will receive future donations as they upgrade their kit. Really looking forward to opening the bin bags to see if there any famous player kit or boots. The quality of the kit is bound to be first class and there will be some very fortunate teams soon wearing kit from one of the most popular teams in the World.

Graham’s letter has paid off as this month we have also had donations from Reading, Barnet and Carlisle.

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Airdrieonians FC Amnesty

We have entered into an amnesty with Airdrie which will kick off later in June. 

The guys have received formal sponsorship and will be offering all under 12’s a free season ticket if they donate their old kit.  They have set themselves a target of collecting 10,000+ items of kit and tried to register it with the Guinness World Record people. 

The publicity should be really good as they have good links with the national media in Scotland and as it is such a novel idea hopefully there will be some good coverage. 

Hold the back page as they say! 

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Stegota FC/KitAid Kampala Cup

Sadly Stegota were pipped at the post on the final day of the season for a place in the full time FUFA Big league in Uganda. 

This is really disappointing as they are geared up for the next level and they recently beat a team who are in the Ugandan Cup Final which includes some International players. 

Hopefully their dream will come true next season.  However, we have played a part in arranging a game between Stegota and another Kampalan team who have links with our Ambassador Club side, Marine FC from Liverpool.  We have sponsored a cup for the winners and the match is scheduled to take place on 14 June, the same day as another small game in Brazil (England v Italy!). 

Good luck Stegota.

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Boxing Up in May

The May session was another really good boxing up and over 100 boxes left the building with 4 different charities. 

It was also nice to see Janet and Dom Neville who came down from Liverpool to attend the session.  Helen drove down from Birmingham and we also had a charity attending from Cardiff, so distance seems to be no obstacle for our great bunch of volunteers. 

I have arranged the next session for 21 June and if you haven’t received an invite and would like to attend please let me know. 

They are good fun and a great way of meeting the team.

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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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