KitAid was honoured by the presence of Sir Mo Farah at the Hatfield Boxing Up session on Saturday 27 January.

Sir Mo chatted to every volunteer, signed autographs, recorded voice messages and helped load boxes into the charity vans. Everyone was excited to meet him and said afterwards what a lovely down to earth and humble guy he is.

85 boxes of kit were handed over to Mo for him to distribute in Hargeisa, Somaliland at the end of March. He will be opening a sports centre and arranging football tournaments while he is there.

A fantastic morning and an experience we will always remember.

I hope you are all well and settled into 2024.

January has been a very special month for KitAid with a memorable first boxing up session. Here are the highlights and the very latest despatch totals

Total items of kit donated in January – 6,945
Total items of kit donated since 1998 – 1,034,393

 

Boxing Up – Sir Mo Farah

Many of you were at the session on Saturday morning for what was the most memorable and wonderful boxing up in our history. Sir Mo was fantastic, he took time to chat to everyone, signed everything, posed for loads of photos and recorded voice messages with incredible enthusiasm. We couldn’t have asked for more and he even got involved in loading all of the vans.

When I spoke to him before the session he made it clear that he wants to give back now that he finally has time. A really humble and honorable man in every sense.

He received 85 boxes of kit and they will be used in Hargeisa, Somaliland at the end of March when he opens a new sports complex there. He said he didn’t just want to turn up, cut a ribbon and pose for a few photos. He is going to organise some tournaments to involve the local community.

A wonderful experience and the beauty of KitAid, we never know what the next email, message or call might bring!

 

Thank You certificates

Hopefully all of the regional coordinators reading this update have received the new 2024 certificates to hand out to kit donors. If you haven’t, could you please let me know.

Many thanks to Carole for designing the certificate and for arranging the printing, while she is away in New Zealand. The first batch was posted out on 5 January, which must be a new record.

 

London Football Ground Sponsored Walk – 20/21/22 March

This is a very unique challenge and many thanks to Chris, our Regional Coordinator for Aylesbury, for setting up the event.

I do think “challenge” is the right description as it is a 3 day walk, covering every EFL ground in London, starting at Arsenal on 20 March and finishing at Wembley Stadium a couple of days later. Chris will be joined by friends, including James, who is the Wycombe Wanderers correspondent for the Bucks Free Press, and a supporter of KitAid.

As the walk involves overnight stays Chris is looking to try and get some external sponsorship. If anyone knows of a company who might like to put their name to the event please let me know.

A Just Giving page has been created and Chris is hoping to raise £1,000 for KitAid, see https://www.justgiving.com/page/chris-turton-james-andteam1705612763068

If you would like to join Chris, it doesn’t have to be for the whole event, even a leisurely 3 mile wander from Chelsea to Fulham, will be appreciated. I will arrange a welcome home and congratulations party for their final stretch from Brentford to Wembley Stadium on 22 March.

 

Bill Antonio

This is a lovely story and one to make KitAid proud.

We have a picture of a teenage Bill wearing a Watford FC training top in Harare, Zimbabwe. A couple of weeks ago, Bill came on as a late substitute for Mechelen and scored the winning goal against KA Gent in the Belgian A League. This is hopefully the start of a long career for Bill and who knows, he could be wearing a Watford training shirt every day in the future!

 

International Sports Convention – 20/21 March

As previously mentioned, KitAid is the chosen charity partner for this prestigious convention at White Hart Lane.

ISC agreed to sponsor a couple of our projects and asked for some proposals, which we supplied. They have agreed to sponsor a Women and Girls Football project in Malawi, which will be overseen by our good friends FOMO Malawi. This will enable a womens team to enter the Southern Malawi Football League for the very first time. They have also agreed to sponsor the Chimpanzee Protection Tournament in Uganda later this year.

 

Well I never……!

Recently Johnny (Jefferson), our Regional Coordinator for Durham gave a KitAid presentation to a Scout Group in Whitley Bay.

Johnny’s son Jed went with him and he is currently in the TV series “Jamie Johnson FC”. The boys in the scout group wanted to meet him! He was also in the series “Dumping Ground”. I then found out that Dad Johnny was in the famous TV series “Byker Grove” along with Ant and Dec, and he played the part of Fraser Campbell!

Any other claims to fame from other Regional Coordinators gratefully received!!

 

A great start to 2024 and thanks very much to everyone for your support and time in keeping the KitAid journey on rack.

Many thanks
Derrick

I hope you are all well and you all had a lovely Christmas break.

As we are fast approaching the end of 2023, our special year, I thought it would be appropriate to round it off with a summary of what we all achieved.

Total items of kit donated at start of 2023 – 933,897
Total items of kit donated at end of 2023 – 1,027,448
Total items of kit donated in 2023 – 93,551

In the January monthly update I set out four targets that I hoped KitAid could achieve by the end of December, as follows:-

  1. To reach One Million items of donated kit during the 25th Anniversary year.
  2. To celebrate our 25th Anniversary year with a party event.
  3. For KitAid to win an award in recognition of everyone’s efforts.
  4. To agree on a sustainable operating model beyond our 25th year.

Well we can certainly tick the boxes for the items 1 to 3 and number 4 still needs more discussion before coming to an agreement.

I think we can congratulate ourselves on meeting the first 3 targets and remember, we are just a small volunteer run charity operating on goodwill with a very small income.

 

Highlights of 2023

I have made a quick list and would be interested to hear from you if you have any others.

  • Design of a special 25th Anniversary logo
  • Production of a 25th Anniversary calendar
  • 25th Anniversary badge and polo shirts.
  • 25th Anniversary coin (for celebration evening attendees)
  • 25th Anniversary 20 page brochure.

 

Events

  • Attendance as an invited charity to the Liverpool FC Foundation Legends match at Anfield with a half time pitch side presentation of a special “25” shirt.
  • KitAid Supporters Cup presentation to Leverstock Green FC.
  • “25 for 25” Fundraising Challenge. Congratulations to Antonia, Karen, Peter, Matt, Barrie and Ben who between them raised £2,500 from their various Challenges.
  • 25th Anniversary Celebration evening at Watford FC. A memorable evening for 130 KitAid supporters from all over the UK which raised £4,000.
  • Gareth Southgate recognising our One Million milestone with the presentation of a special 1 Million England shirt.
  • Kit collection at Cambridge United FC.
  • Presentation of a Special Recognition Award by Hertfordshire FA.
  • Recognition by The FA in the Royal Box at Wembley prior to the England v Malta match.
  • A thank you from Sir Mo Farah for our support of projects in Somalia and Somaliland.
  • Self funded visits to our charity partners Ballysillan YFC in Belfast and to Diamonds in the Community in Airdrie.
  • KitAid sponsorship of the Belfast Football Camp, the FOMO Malawi Football/Netball Bonanza and the Bulindi Chimpanzee Protection Tournament amounting to £2,500 in total.

Looking ahead to 2024

  • First boxing up session with attendance from a very special guest. (27 Jan, Hatfield)
  • Attendance at the International Sports Convention event in London as their chosen charity partner. (20/21 March)
  • Kit collection at FC United of Manchester (13 April).

In addition to all of the above, we also finally changed our bank provider and have entered into the 21st Century with e-banking. This has probably been the most trying activity of all!! Thanks to Mark and Sean for their support.

All that remains is to say a massive thank you to everyone reading this update for your support of KitAid and to wish you a very happy, healthy and fulfilling 2024.

To finish on, my favourite quotes received following kit donations.

 

“Hear it from me. I am in Norton, Zimbabwe. Keep up the good work. You are not serving soccer. You are saving it.”
Norton Times Magazine, Zimbabwe.

 

“You are not only giving kits, you are giving hope, making a difference and motivating the next generation. We love and cherish what you do.”
Anthiny Iwere, Gravity Solutions Charity.

 

Thank You

Derrick

I hope you are all well and looking forward to the festive weeks ahead.

November was another busy month with a full boxing up session at Hatfield and regular donations from the containers. The new totals are as follows.

 

Total items of kit donated in November – 10,426
Total items of kit donated in 2023 – 92,816
Total items of kit donated since 1998 – 1,026,468

 

I have decided to take a break from handing over kit from the containers in December as I have hurt my hip/back and lifting boxes aggravates it. Hopefully a rest will sort things out and it will give us some time to build up stock again ready for January and the new year. It is also freezing at the containers at this time of the year!!

 

£500 donation

Many thanks to the Paradigm Norton Trust from Bristol for a generous donation of £500. This came about as Regional Coordination Antonia applied to the Trust on our behalf. It then involved a short article being written about our work and how we would use any funds donated, for their committee to consider.

Thanks to Antonia for applying on our behalf and if anyone else knows of any Trusts who make charitable grants, please let me know.

 

Leverstock Green FC – Ambassador Club

Last Saturday Leverstock Green FC, from the Spartan South Midlands Premier League officially became the ninth Club/Trust to become a member of this exclusive club.

They have been very supportive with kit donations for a number of years and have also promoted our work with regular articles in their match day programme and displayed our banner pitch side, free of charge.

The Ambassador Club is for Step 3,4 & 5 non league clubs along with some Trusts and Societies.
The full list of Ambassador Clubs is as follows:
Chesham United FC, FC United of Manchester, Witton Albion FC, Stenhousemuir FC, Marine AFC, Everton in the Community, Diamonds in the Community, Hibernian in the Community and now, Leverstock Green FC.

 

Chelmsford City FC Collection

Many thanks to Chelmsford City FC who recently hosted a kit collection at their home game against Maidstone United.

Thanks to Barrie N for arranging this and for manning a stall before the match. This came about following Barrie’s successful “25for25” Challenge where he met the Club officials and built a relationship and understanding about our work.

 

2023 Christmas Card/2024 Thank You Certificate

Please find attached this year’s Christmas Card. Please send it on to any of your regular supporters.

The 2024 Thank You Certificate is currently with Carole to design and should be available as a printed version by mid to late January. In the meantime please continue to use the current certificate.

A very big thank you to Carole Parsons who does all of our design work free of charge and this year has been extremely busy with the 25th Anniversary brochure as well as the special logo, badges and other items. Carole retired but still does our work and even takes out time from visits to New Zealand to complete our work.

 

KitAid FC U14/U16’s

Congratulations to all of the boys from both teams, who last weekend played in the District Finals. The U14’s drew 1-1 but unfortunately lost on penalties and the U16’s won their match 4-0. They will now go on to represent the Mulanje District in the Regional tournament to decide which team becomes the champions of Malawi.

 

Sir Mo Farah

At the Hatfield Boxing Up session last week we were briefly joined by Sir Mo when he joined the session by video call and took us by surprise! He wanted to thank everyone for our hard work and for supporting projects in his homeland of Somalia. This obviously applies to everyone who is involved with KitAid, not just those at the boxing up session, so thank you to everyone from the legend, Sir Mo Farah.

 

I will send out an end of year update but if I don’t speak to you before, have a wonderful Christmas and thank you very much for making our 25th Anniversary year a special one. We couldn’t have done it without your support.

Happy Christmas.

Derrick

Congratulations to Leverstock Green FC. Who are the latest Club to be added to the KitAid Ambassador Club.

They are the first team from Step 5 and from the (SSML) Spartan South Midlands League to be enrolled as an Ambassador Club.

Emma and Tony Smart from the Committee have been long term supporters of KitAid and they have donated kit, banner space in support of our work.

Welcome to the Ambassador Club

After the milestone month of September it was back to reality again, but October was another successful month. Here are the new totals and the highlights:

Total items of kit donated = 7,910
Total items of kit donated in 2023 = 82,390
Total items of kit donated since 1998 = 1,016,042

 

Hertfordshire FA Award

At the Hatfield boxing up session on 7 October we were delighted and surprised to be presented with a Special Recognition Award as part of the 2023 County Grassroots Football Awards. Many thanks to Herts FA CEO Karl Lingham and to Communications Manager Stuart Mugford for including KitAid in this year’s awards .

It is great for KitAid to receive recognition for all of the hard work carried out by everyone. I can now retire my soapbox and update our trophy cabinet!!

 

Congratulations to Ben (and Sandeep)

Many congratulations to both Ben and Sandeep on the birth of their first baby, Caleb Benjamin Wildman, who arrived on the 5th October. Many of you will know Ben who is the Regional Coordinator for North Kent and South London, as well as a regular boxing up attendee.
Ben is also managing our Linkedin and YouTube posts in between bottle feeds and catching up on sleep!
Good luck Ben and we look forward to seeing Caleb joining you at Hatfield in a few years time.

 

FOMO Malawi Football & Netball Bonanza

Following the 25th Anniversary Celebration we were very fortunate to receive some donations from supporters. Many thanks to the Taylor Family, Tony Smart and to Hertfordshire FA.

We have decided to pool the donations, holding some amount back to meet running costs, but with the majority used to sponsor the Bonanza. We have sponsored this before and some of us have witnessed the wonderful event, which this year will be held between Christmas and New Year.

More than 1,000 children from the 14 Orphan Support Centres in Mulanje will take part in both football and netball tournaments. It is a wonderful event which the children really look forward to, as they are given treats, special food and prizes. There will be regular updates on our sites each day so do look out for the film clips.

Our sponsorship of the Bonanza also helps FOMO as they are struggling to cope with the increased food prices as well as more children coming to the Centres as they are so hungry. This is largely a result of the cyclone which devastated crops in the south of Malawi and pushed up food prices.

 

25 for 25 Challenge

A very big thank you to the six supporters who have taken on a challenge and between themselves, have so far raised £2,200.

We still have two months to go as the Challenge was intended to run across the whole of our 25th Anniversary year.

Can we reach our target of raising £2,500, either with another couple of participants or by sponsoring Karen Austin, who is still completing her challenge of running 25 x 5km runs. Karen has so far completed 22 runs and her final run will be in Auckland, New Zealand on Christmas Eve.

If you are able to sponsor Karen, here is a link to her Just Giving page
https://trk.justgiving.com/f/a/TJk-tTZMiMlFhr1oRNrVwQ~~/AAME8QA~/RgRmRjbFP0T2aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuanVzdGdpdmluZy5jb20vcGFnZS9rLWF1c3Rpbi0xNjg0MjU0NTE3NjE1P3V0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1sY19mcnBfc2hhcmVfdHJhbnNhY3Rpb25fdHJhbnNhY3Rpb25hbF8tLV9wYWdlX2xhdW5jaGVkXy0tX2NhbXBhaWduJnV0bV9jb250ZW50PTY2ZTI0YTAwLWJhYTctNDM5Ni1hYzhiLTdlYTcwMmI2NzkwNCZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9zb3VyY2U9cG9zdG9mZmljZSZ1dG1fdGVybT0xNjg0MjU1MTcxOTE2VwNzcGNCCmRixbFjZK5rKiNSFGthcmVuYXVzdGluMjZAbWUuY29tWAQAAAAD

 

KitAid Promotional Flyers

As we have now reached the One Million milestone I have started to update promotional material and the first is the A5 Flyer. Next week I will receive 2,000 copies and if you would like some please let me know. Next on the list is the 2024 Thank You certificate and I am also working with Carole on getting some quotes to print 1,000 copies of an updated version of the 25th Anniversary brochure.

I am hoping to share an exciting announcement about a special fundraising walk soon, which should be a great event for those who enjoy visiting football grounds in the London area!

 

I think that is all of the news for October and as ever, many thanks for all of your support. KitAid couldn’t exist without it.

Best wishes
Derrick

KitAid is immensely proud to have been chosen as the partner charity for the 2024 International Sports Convention, which will be held at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium next March.
Further details will follow in due course.

KitAid is delighted to have been awarded a Special Recognition Award by Hertfordshire FA in recognition of 25 Years of Transforming Lives Around the World through the Power of Football

Please take a look at our 25th Anniversary Celebration booklet to read about how KitAid has grown from one box of kit to one million donated items since 1998.

Hi all,

I hope you are all well.

September was an incredible month as we celebrated 25 years as well as reaching the One Million items of donated kit milestones. Certainly a month to remember. Here are the main highlights and latest news.

Total items sent out in September  –  6,230

Total items sent out in 2023  –            74,480

Total items sent out since 1998  –      1,008,132

25th Anniversary Celebration

Now the dust has settled I think we can look back on a wonderful event where everything came together and the months of planning were rewarded. Thanks to everyone who played their part in making this happen and for those who were unable to attend I will attach a copy of the 25 Year brochure given out on the night and a link to our new YouTube Channel which includes some of the presentation films shown on the night.

The Auction and Raffle raised £3,000 and we received a further £1,000 in donations from supporters, which is fantastic. Thanks to everyone who donated prizes.

The press release which followed the celebration was published by the Watford Observer,the Non League Paper, the Bucks Free Press, Watford FC, Reading FC and some shared media outlets. It is a shame none of the National press picked up on it, especially as we had Gareth Southgate as the main lead item, but it might be worth issuing another release at the end of the year. Many thanks to Peter Rennison for managing the release along with PRPR and Rachel Williams.

A final thank you to our sponsors, Salford Van Hire, Family FC and Five Star Trophies, who all made the event possible.  Roll on 2028!

Boxing Up – Saturday 7 October – Hatfield

Thanks to those who replied to the invitation email and we currently have 20 attendees.  If you are still to reply and would like to join us please let me know, as 25 is the ideal number to make things run smoothly. There will be special 25 Year cupcakes and an historic group photo with the One Million banner to look forward to.

New Linkedin and YouTube Channel

Many thanks to Ben W for setting up a new Linked in page. It currently only has 33 followers so let’s get this to 100+ by the next monthly update. The link is https://www.linkedin.com/company/kit-aid/?viewAsMember=true

Ben has also set up a new YouTube Channel to keep all of the wonderful KitAid films together.  As well as the films shown on the Celebration night, there are some others which are really great. You may not have seen some of them and I can recommend watching them on a dark Autumn evening!  The link is via https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMH99146mSle0ag2Gq11Nug

International Sports Convention – March 2024

KitAid has been invited to attend the above prestigious event next year and I have also been asked to speak on an environmental sustainability panel. It is held at Spurs White Hart Lane stadium over two days, with over 1,000 attendees from across Europe. We have been chosen as one of the charities and attendees will be asked to either bring kit or to donate kit after the event. It is attended by all of the major brands as well as governing bodies such as UEFA and FIFA. The press launch announcing our attendance is due to happen this coming month.

Cambridge United kit collection

Many thanks to Ian D and Matt T for managing a great kit collection at the CUFC v Port Vale game recently. A van load of kit was donated by the Club, the Foundation and supporters and Ian is kindly storing this for us at his house until we have space in the containers. Cambridge United is a new club to KitAid and due to the great work by Ian in developing the relationship, they are looking to be long term supporters.

The invitation to attend the Internal Sports Convention came about as the chairman of ISC is a Cambridge United supporter and read about our work via the kit collection.  It goes to show how things can develop from events.

25 for 25 Challenge

Many congratulations to Barrie N on completing his challenge of visiting 25 football grounds across Essex. Barrie also raised over £500 and gained an amazing amount of online publicity throughout the challenge. He also made a lot of new friends at each Club many of whom will continue to support us with end of season kit donations.

Congratulations also to Peter D on completing his swimming challenge and raising £300. I think the only other challenge that is ongoing is Karen A’s running challenge. and I will get an update for next month.

With all of the challenges combined we have now raised £2,200.  Wouldn’t it be great to get this to £2,500 in the three months we have left for the 25th Anniversary year.  Who is up for the challenge? Each person who has taken part will receive a beautiful glass shield from our good friends at Five Star Trophies.

Hatfield 5k Business Park Run

Once again KitAid was the chosen charity for this event and we received £900 from the race entry fees. This is all due to the hard work and support of Steve Thake and Michelle Plain from Affinity Water, who host the event and nominate KitAid to the event organisers. Many thanks to Steve and Michelle for your great support.

The end bit!

I always like to finish the monthly update on a high and here is another lovely story. There are many tasks which take place over the year to make KitAid such a success, and some inevitably go unnoticed. One example is how Jeff S drives from Potters Bar to Hatfield every fortnight to collect parcels which have been delivered to the Affinity Water office. He opens each package and where there is a letter or email address included, he then posts off a Thank You certificate to the kit donor. He received the following thank you

You’re most welcome [in respect of the donation], I’ll certainly endeavour to send some more kit down as and when I find it, and in the meantime would like to thank you and your KitAid colleagues for all your efforts and sterling work – knowing what ‘new’ kit meant to me and my children, I have no doubt your efforts help to put many smiles on many faces of grateful recipients worldwide.

Thank you Jeff, this is what makes KitAid so special to so many people.

Thanks to everyone for your tremendous support and I look forward to seeing some of you on Saturday morning at Hatfield.

Derrick