KitAid Monthly Update – March 2022

March was a good month for KitAid with our first full boxing up session for over two years and some helpful publicity. Before sharing the highlights I would like to welcome our new Regional Co-ordinators to the team, Chris Blakeley from Carterton and Naomi Owen from Stoke on Trent.

Monthly totals

Total items sent out in March = 11,325
Total items sent out in 2022 = 26,655
Total items sent out since 1998 = 847,607

Countries supported – Malawi, Ghana, Ukraine, Cape Verde. Zimbabwe, Gambia, Senegal, and Sierra Leone.

Premier League Today TV

At the boxing up session we were joined by PL TV who sent a presenter and a cameraman to record the “journey of a shirt” story. They filmed every element of the session, interviewed a number of volunteers with the focus being given to a Watford FC shirt which was presented by Barry (Freedman) to Rhoda from the charity Fafali.
Rhoda then arranged for the shirt to be delivered to her brother in Accra, Ghana, and he has filmed a message holding the same shirt, with children from Fafali, all wearing Watford kits.
The production team at PL TV will now edit the film and it will be broadcast later this month. Unfortunately it will not be shown in Europe, but they have promised to share the finished clip, which I will include a link to in the next monthly update.

Annual Reviews

Hopefully you will have received your printed copies of the new Annual Review. I posted 30 packages but to save on postage I have held back sending them to those of you I will see in the next few weeks. This is our key report to explain to people what we do and although I say it myself, I think it is a great read and it looks professional.
Here is a link to the report and it would be great if you could share this with your friends, contacts etc
https://1dlvs22b360y2pxdsc25i32x-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/kitaid-annual-review-2022-paginated.pdf

Ukraine support

We were able to donate 15 boxes of Club Wembley fleeces and teddies to two separate deliveries of humanitarian aid, one via ex Watford and England legend Luther Blissett and the other via Chesham United/England Supporters.
We also donated hundreds of pairs of socks to the New Hope Trust in Watford, 12 boxes of unbranded sports clothing to Care4Calais and some bags of scarves to Barrington Court homeless charity in Hammersmith.
I think this reinforces our message that “It is more than just a shirt…” and we are really pleased to support these appeals/projects.

Non League Day

We are very grateful to Aylesbury Vale Dynamoes FC from the Spartan Premier League for hosting a kit collection on our behalf on Non League Day. Supporters were given free entry to their game if they donated kit or clothing for Ukraine. A large amount of kit was donated and one of the organisers spotted 15 classic retro Wycombe Wanderers shirts from the early 1990’s. As he is a journalist for the Bucks Free Press he persuaded the paper to host an auction of the shirts and this raised an incredible £1,100 for KitAid.
A very big thank you to James Richings from the paper for making the collection and the auction happen. Thanks also to local Regional Coordinator, Chris Turton, for liaising with the Club and for collecting all of the shirts.

Lorraine Worsley Carter MBE

We would like to offer our congratulations to Lorraine on becoming the new High Sheriff for Manchester. We met Lorraine in Manchester a couple of years ago as she was helping former Ambassador Mary HD with some public relations work. She has followed our progress since the meeting and will act as an Honorary Representative for KitAid in her time in office. Lorraine will be officially inducted as High Sheriff later this month, after which time, we will make a more official announcement.
Well done Lorraine, and we look forward to supporting you throughout your tenure.

KitKing

KitKing from Loughborough have been very supportive of our work for some time. After many telephone discussions and cancelled meetings due to Covid, I finally met up with the owners and staff at their Head Office. I also gave a presentation to the team, who were really interested and keen to get more involved.
We are looking at ways of working more closely with KitKing and hope some of their team can support us in other ways than solely providing kit.
As the partnership develops we will share the developments.

25th Anniversary – 2023

As time seems to fly I thought it would be good to start raising the profile of the forthcoming 25th Anniversary, which officially is July 2023, so just 15 months away!

A couple of questions which I would really appreciate your involvement in.

To recognise the milestone would you prefer a black tie dinner as we did for the 10th and 15th anniversaries or a less formal buffet style evening as we did for the 20th anniversary??

Would you like to be involved in helping to organise the event? (Not compulsory!)

Please do let me know your thoughts as it is important we involve everyone as you are the people who have made it happen and without you we wouldn’t be celebrating 25 years of KitAid.

Have a great month and stay safe.

Derrick
on behalf of the KitAid Trustees

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New 2021 Annual Review

We are delighted to share the new KitAid Annual Review which is full of heartwarming stories capturing our successes in 2021.

To read the Annual Review please use the following link. 2021 Annual Review

Printed glossy copies are also available on request.

Thank you to our designer, Carole Parsons, for ongoing support despite the fact that she retired two years ago!

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First full Boxing Up session

After two very long years we were delighted to hold our first full boxing up session at Hatfield on 12 March with 25 of our volunteers.

To make this landmark even more special we were delighted to welcome the cameras from Premier League TV who were making a short film about the journey of a shirt from Hatfield to Ghana. Matt Floyd who is often seen on Sky Sports News was the main host and a number of the KitAid team were interviewed. The second stage of filming is yet to take place in Accra, but when we have a link to share to the full story, we will add it to the website.

Over 5,000 items of kit were sorted and packed at the session, bringing us ever closer to our target of reaching 1 Million items of donated kit by 2023.

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KitAid monthly update – February 2022

February was another busy month with deliveries or collections at the Hemel Hempstead containers almost every day. Here are the monthly totals:
Total items of kit donated in month     7,420
Total items donated so far in 2022     15,330
Total items donated since 1998          836,282
 
Countries donated to in February :    Uganda, Zimbabwe, Guinea-Bisau, The Gambia, DR Congo, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Zambia, Cape Verde, Sri Lanka, Kenya and South Africa.
 
Annual Review
 
I am pleased to have met the deadline of writing the new Annual Review by the end of the month and many thanks to those who have reviewed the content so far. All of the pictures have been found and sent to Carole, our designer, and the fun now starts for her as she has to squeeze it all into seven pages. Once this is completed it will be sent out again for a final review and then go to print. If all goes to plan I should be able to send out the printed copies in early April. It will be loaded onto our website and shared on social media so look out for it, as even though I say it myself, it is a good read!
Mary HD – Ambassador
 
We heard from Mary last week that after two and half years as our Ambassador she has decided to step down from the role.
We are very grateful for her support over the period and you would like to thank her and wish her the very best for the future. An article acknowledging her support has just been posted on to the front page of the KitAid website.
Boxing Up – Hatfield
 
After two very long years we have finally got a date in the diary for a full boxing up session at Hatfield, on Saturday 12 March. Thank you to those who let me know they could (or couldn’t) attend and we have 24 volunteers able to help out on the day. If you missed the email and would like to attend please let me know by return.
To add to the excitement, we should also have Premier League Today TV filming the journey of a shirt from the session all the way through to it being handed over in Accra, Ghana. I have had a couple of conversations with the programme researcher and will confirm everything next week.
Looking forward to those Danish pastries and Sean’s weird and wonderful megamix!
Sue Lopez
 
This is probably a name that won’t mean anything to you, it didn’t to me, but a lovely story has developed from a single kit donation.
Mark (Smith) drove over to Reading to collect a kit donation, which turned out to be a few boxes of Southampton Ladies FC old kit. The donor explained that her son had bought a house in Winchester and the garage was full of football memorabilia/records from Southampton Ladies in the 1970’s onwards. The previous owner, Sue Lopez had left them as she had moved into a care home.
Sue was a leading player in Women’s football from the 1960’s, playing for England, Southampton and then as a coach.
We put the new house owner in touch with the National Football Museum in Manchester and they have arranged to collect, catalogue and display some of the items.
“Its more than just a shirt………”
Ukraine
I am sure everyone reading this update feels shocked and horrified by the situation in Ukraine.
We have been asked if we can supply winter coats by one of our charity partners, the Myosotis Trust, who have previously donated our cold weather kits to their project in Romania. They are getting a shipment together to send to Ukraine via their existing links in Romania.
We have just been given a lot of fleeces by Club Wembley and we have some thick coats in the storeroom at Hatfield. Could I ask please that if you are attending the boxing up session on 12 March and you have any suitable winter clothing, you bring it along and we will add it to what we currently have.
Badges
 
As the first delivery of the beautiful gold enamel badges all dispersed so quickly, I have ordered another batch of 100.
They really are special and if you missed out last time, please let me know and I will discuss the best way of getting one to you. For those attending the boxing up session I can bring some along on the day, but otherwise, if you could email me please.
Finally, thank you to everyone for your support, especially over the last two years, when it would have been easy to move on from KitAid. We are lucky to have such a dedicated group of supporters and we do appreciate this.
 
 
Many thanks
Derrick
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Mary HD

KitAid Ambassador, Mary HD, has decided to stand down from the role after two and half years of support for our charity.

During her tenure as Ambassador she gave her dedicated support by promoting KitAid via her social media channels, through her music channels with the song “Love and Liberty” and the lovely accompanying film clip which included the KitAid FC children in Malawi. Mary also promoted different KitAid campaigns to her followers.

We would like thank Mary for all her dedication and commitment to KitAid in her role as Ambassador and wish her well for the future.

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KitAid Monthly Update – January 2022

First of all I would like to welcome Richie Gilham to the team as a new Regional Co-ordinator for Liverpool. We have known Richie for a number of years as he is our main contact at the Everton Heritage Society and has been instrumental in securing the use of St Luke’s, Goodison for boxing up sessions.  Thanks Richie and welcome to Team KitAid!

 

January has seen us getting off to a good start and here are the latest monthly totals

 

Items donated  –  7,910

Total items donated since 1998  –  828,862

Countries supported in January  –  Ghana, Romania, Uganda, Malawi, Zambia, Cape Verde, Zimbabwe and Nigeria.

 

Thank You certificates

I have posted out 25 packs to Regional Co-ordinators who I do not see regularly and given some out to local helpers who I have met up with. I will try to hand over the remaining packs but if you need them now, please let me know and I will find a way of getting some to you. Many thanks to Carole for designing them and arranging printing.

 

Boxing Up

We held an outdoor session on Saturday morning at Hatfield as the storeroom was full. We handed over just over 2,100 items of mainly unsorted kit.

Hopefully the number of Covid cases will continue to fall and by the time the room is full again, we can return to indoor boxing up. This should be by March and we will review safety procedures in line with Affinity Water requirements at the time.

It will be wonderful to see everyone again after two very long years.

 

Sponsorship

We have a Trustee agreement not to sit on surplus funds while also being financially cautious to allow for any unexpected expenses. Where and when possible we make grants to support projects which fully meet our purpose. To enable people to participate in sport who may otherwise be disadvantaged through lack of facilities or required funds. We have given grants to the following partner charities as follows

 

FOMO Malawi  –  Sponsorship of KitAid FC teams for 2022  –  £1,000

FOMO Malawi  –  Sponsorship of Football, Netball, Athletics Bonanza in July 2022  –  £2,000

Bulindi Uganda  – Sponsorship of inter village team tournament to protect chimpanzees from poachers  –  £1,000

 

This still leaves us with an available balance of £11,500 to meet our costs in 2022, without any further funding.  Our annual costs for storage, courier collections and postage/marketing are in the region of £10,000.  Additional funding received in 2022 will allow us to meet any expansion costs and to consider other projects for support.

 

Annual Review

I now have a list of 20 stories from last year to write up and I hope to complete this by the end of February. It will then be sent out to people to proofread/sense check and once signed off, the hard work starts again as Carole has to design the layout with pictures, and squeeze it all into the available seven pages. It then goes off to the printers and copies will hopefully be mailed out to you in late March.

 

Activities

We have had a couple of events happening throughout the month which will soon be closing.

A very big thank you to www.matchwornshirts.com who have been collecting shirts from their customers for the “Coach the Coach” project in Ghana. Thanks also to @tomdedits and to all of the designers who have created wonderful AFCON players stickers. I have been posting the designs on our @kitaid sites and Tom has created a gallery on his site. As well as the designs over £200 has been donated on a special KitAid Just Giving page so far.

 

Thanks

As ever, we are very grateful to everyone for your support in collecting, storing and delivering kit for us.  A very big thank you to Tim (Twickenham) and Dave (Bradford) who also hired vans and delivered a full load to our containers in Hemel Hempstead.  This really helps as we not only save a courier collection fee but it is also quicker.

On Saturday (5 February), KitAid will be the match sponsor for the FC United of Manchester v Witton Albion FC match. Both teams are KitAid Ambasador Clubs. If you are looking for a good game to go to we can definitely recommend this one as the atmosphere at FC United games is special. A big thank you to Peter for arranging this.

 

Have a good February and keep well.

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KitAid Monthly/Annual update Happy New Year

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and here is wishing everyone a happy, healthy and fulfilling 2022.
Despite lockdowns and other Covid related frustrations KitAid has had an amazing 2021 with a record number of kits sent all across the globe. Here are the final end of year figures to enjoy.
Total number of kit items donated in 2021        =  114,328
Total number of kit items donated since 1998  =  820,952
 
Last year we sent out 74,421 items and in 2019, 86,445 items, which shows how much KitAid is growing. We are edging ever closer to the milestone of 1 Million items and we are on track to reach this in time for our 25th Anniversary in 2023.
Thank You
I often finish the monthly updates with a thank you but at the end of the year I think it is appropriate to start off with this.
KitAid is a team and we are really fortunate to have built up a Premiership winning squad of fantastic volunteers. Everyone plays a part and we appreciate this. We have some long standing stalwarts and some new signings but everyone makes a difference.
Thank you for your support in 2021, and the figures shown above reflect the difference everyone makes.
Highlights of 2021
 
Soon I will start work on the 2020 Annual Review and the test of remembering all of the fantastic things we delivered in the past year!
For me, without looking back at all of the hundreds of social media posts and monthly updates, I am most proud of the following
  • Setting a new record of donated items, working from containers in Hemel Hempstead, the storeroom in Hatfield and the Liverpool/Manchester links. With thousands of items of kit coming through from all of our regional volunteers.
  • KitAid Australia being set up, thanks to David Walker in Darwin.
  • Zanil, Haniff and Davie from the Kit Aid FC U17/U14 teams, receiving International recognition for Malawi.
There are plenty more and I would love to hear what yours are, as this will help me with the new Annual Review!
FOMO/KitAid Bonanza  
As I am writing this update hundreds of kids from all of the 14 orphan support centres across the Mulanje District, will be excitedly taking part in football and netball competitions. It culminates with the grand finals tomorrow and the glory for the winning centres to become the best at each sport.
KitAid with the help of Five Star Trophies in Hemel Hempstead has provided a medal for every child taking part. We wanted everyone to feel special and to have a keepsake to remind them of this special event.
Please look out for pictures on our social media sites over the next couple of days.
 
We have entered into a partnership with the above who run an auction site for, not surprisingly, match worn shirts!  They have links with every Premier League club kit manager and then auction the shirts after games to collectors.  You will be amazed at how much some shirts sell for, have a guess at how much some people will pay for a match worn Ronaldo shirt and then shock yourself by looking on their website!!
They are asking their customers to donate unwanted shirts to KitAid over the next month.
Thank You Certificates/ KitAid Supporter badges
As the beautiful gold enamel badges were so popular and all went so quickly, we have ordered another 100. If you missed out last time or know of someone who you think deserves one for their support of KitAid please let me know the details. They are the equivalent of our Blue Peter Badge, but far more sought after!
The 2022 Thank You certificate is currently in design and should be with you in a few weeks time. In the meantime please continue to use this year’s version or make a list of who to send one to once you receive the new ones.
I think that is everything for now and it just leaves me to thank you all again for your fantastic support in 2021. You have made an incredible difference to so many people all across the world, from Brazil to Samoa, which is a heartwarming way to end the year.
Take care, stay safe and have a Happy New Year.
Derrick
On behalf of the KitAid Trustees
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BCCP – Football Tournament report

KitAid is involved in some diverse projects, but who would have predicted our work could help protect chimpanzees in a Ugandan forest?

The following report explains how as well as reporting back on the 18 team tournament we sponsored.

BCCP Football Tournament 2021 – Report to KitAid (Dec 2021)

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A new member of our exclusive Ambassador Club

KitAid is delighted to announce Hibernian Community Foundation as a new member of our exclusive Ambassador Club.

This has followed the wonderful kit donation from the Hibs Girls Academy which was arranged by Lily Dixon and Academy Manager, Joelle Murray.

It is great to have Edinburgh represented alongside Airdrie and Stenhousemuir.

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Happy Christmas!

Happy Christmas to all KitAid followers and thank you for your support.

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