North East Scotland Branch trophy night

3650 Raised for North East Scotland Branch trophy Charity Fund raiser Night

 

The North East Scotland Branch held a trophy night on Saturday 8th September in an effort to raise funds for three charities close to our hearts:

Aberdeen FC Community Trust https://www.afccommunitytrust.org/

City in the Community – https://www.cityfootballgroup.com/Cityzens/City-in-the-Community

Aberdeen Sands – Stillbirth and neonatal death charity – http://www.aberdeen-sands.org/

 

The event was organised by the committee of North East Scotland Manchester City supporter club branch (NES MCFC) comprised of Deryck Harrison (Chairman), David Ramsay (Branch secretary), Judith Taylor (Treasurer), Mike Forsyth (Fund Raising and events), Steve Pickston and Alan Skene for members of the supporter club branch, Manchester City fans based in Scotland, friends and family and the local community. The event was to be centred on the Premier League and Carabao Cup; which Manchester City via the Official Supporters Club kindly agreed to loan us for the evening. The plan was to hold an auction and 3 raffles, a raffle for Signed Paul Dickov shirt and a raffle for Signed Asa Hartford shirt, two footballers from City of the past who were synonymous with Scotland and Manchester City. The star prizes of the Main Raffle were the Aberdeen FC Signed football and Mancini signed picture with COA; additionally we had football and golf memorabilia plus prizes of wines, spirits and chocolates etc. which were donated by committee and supporter club members.

The auction main prizes were Bernardo Silva Signed shirt 2018/19 Season with COA donated by Manchester City, Aberdeen FC Signed shirt donated by Aberdeen FC, Vincent Kompany boots. Following up on an article in the Evening Express {1}, Jasmine Ltd who specialise in Document Solutions, Print Services, Marketing, Public Relations and Emergency Media Response donated three items; two items for auction {2}, Metal Works {3} Super Duo (Leroy Sane and KDB) and Print-a- Brick Manchester City Lego Parade bus {4}. The third item donated by Jasmine Ltd, an Aguerooo Metal works was raffled with a bottle of a champagne to the attendees on the night. Hometown barbers donated a Gents haircut and beard shave which was also auctioned on the night.

 

Tickets were sold at £20 for adults and £5 for children and we managed to successfully sell approximately 80 tickets for the event at the Beach Ballroom. The night started with photos taken with the two trophies and a group photo and the Premier League trophies left the venue at about 10:30 PM

There were significant cost in arranging for the trophies to travel to Aberdeen for the event {believe it or not the trophies each need a seat on the aeroplane and their own luggage allowance}, our event expenditure was £2600 when we factored in the cost of the Venue, Flights, Security and Accommodation. This meant we had to raise £2600 before we could break even on the event, I’ll be honest and admit that as a committee we were very concerned about how we could make the night a success and raise significant funds for the designated charities. There were some heated discussions and concerns voiced about making a loss and potentially leaving insufficient funds to cover batch ticket requests like 50 tickets for Cup Final.

 

We were very fortunate to receive the real premier league trophy and the real Carabao Cup as most of the UK trophy visits are the replica trophies, unfortunately this meant that the trophies couldn’t be handled or lifted but we all believe this was a price worth paying for the real thing!

The Auction winners were: Glenn Ellis – Kompany boots, Scott Henderson – 2018/19 Signed Aberdeen shirt, Deryck Harrison – Signed Bernardo Silva shirt, Deryck Harrison – Super Duo Metal works, Judith Taylor – Lego Parade bus and David Ramsay – Home town barber voucher. The main raffle prizes were won by Glen Rowland who gave the ball to his friend son who is an Aberdeen and Manchester City fan, Mancini signed Picture with COA – Mark Reilly, Signed Aberdeen Goal Keeper shirt – Matt Garrett, 90 year queen Elizabeth commemorative whisky – Anthony Gilroy.

The signed Paul Dickov shirt was won by one of our original PEP SHOP BOYS (our 5-aside team at Goals) Garyth Grant, the Asa Hartford shirt was won by Neil Keenan but after several communications and an offer for the shirt plus a charity donation a deal was agreed to sell the shirt to David Motherwell. Muzz his nickname amongst friends advised why the shirt was so special; he let me know that Asa Hartford was the reason he became a City fan, at 12 years old he found out that Asa Hartford had a hole in his heart, as did his Mum; Asa was also Scottish and he played for the national team.

Sofia, Liam, Holly, Isabella and Robin had great fun playing with the balloons on the dancefloor and helping sell and draw the raffles, our youngest City fan on the night went to 5 month old baby blue Finlay Richardson, great fun had by Blues of all ages!

A very enjoyable and successful night was had by all, we were able to generate £1800, £600 each to the three chosen charities comprised of profits from the event and donations from the committee and the North East Scotland Branch. We were then able to secure corporate sponsorship; £1500 for Aberdeen FC Community Trust arranged by David Ramsay and Scott Henderson from Shell via Shell UK’s celebrations of 50 Years of oil and gas production in the North Sea, we are launching a ‘50 Random Acts of Kindness’; additionally £500 raised for Aberdeen Sands arranged by Alan Skene from the Bank of Scotland. All considered the Total charity money raised was £3800 for the event.

All in all a huge amount of organisation went into this event and I am greatly thankful for those that helped make the night a success, to quote the G4S security guards, hope to see you next year with 5 travel guest in tow, but to dream, BLUEMOON RISING!!

[1} https://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/fp/news/local/the-premier-league-trophy-is-heading-to-aberdeen-this-weekend/

[2} https://www.wearejasmine.co.uk/

[3} https://metalgallery.co.uk/collections/manchester-city-fc

[4} https://printabrick.co.uk/products/limited-edition-manchester-city-2018-parade-bus

 

 

 

 

 

 

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