I am bowled over by the number of individuals and organisations who are going to every length to raise money for us. Our Just Giving campaign now stands at £55k which takes us into the £60k bracket when we add the tax relief. I am really touched by the genuine acts of kindness where people give what they can and where you know that for some, a £5 donation has the same personal value as £100 from someone else. Thank you so much! Mollie Smith has been raising money for most of the year and her amount currently stands at £1900! And John Scott, Chris Ryan’s cousin raised £1075 at the weekend when he ran the Great Birmingham Run on Sunday. We had a wine tasting evening organised by Ali and Nigel Holgate at Chorley FC which raised £1200 and which Stuart Robinson hosted and Danny Dawoud attended.
Lucy, our Head of Fundraising is out and about everywhere at the moment and on Monday attended Simplyhealth Droitwich’s coffee morning which raised funds for the team. Paul Shaw and Alan Ash attended and did a meet and greet with customers – the shop is going to continue to support us and are planning their next event already. All this is just fantastic, it really lifts the spirits and gives us the confidence to put in place plans to play the best in the world and encourages us that we can raise even more money and get to the World Championships in August next year. I am particularly excited about the large fundraising initiatives we have coming up in the next couple of months. The first of these is being organized by Sevenoaks Rugby Club on the weekend of 4 November. The club is committing its entire weekend to raising funds for the GB team, starting with a charity lunch on the Saturday ahead of their 1st XV game with Maidstone and going into the Sunday where we will be providing wheelchair rugby opportunities for the club’s youth teams to play. So if you are around the Kent area, Sevenoaks is the place to be that weekend. I will be there with our Chairman and we will support the event with our own staff and GB athletes. I am also very excited about a major fundraising event that Lloyds of London will be hosting on 23 November in its iconic building but more about that for another time!
Reflecting on why we have so many individuals and organisations who give freely of their time and money to support us, I am conscious of the importance of our reputation. People only give when they are sure about the cause and when they are confident that the money raised is being well spent. They want to be confident that the organization is well managed and has a culture and value base which is positive and which they can feel good about supporting. That is why we have such a strong focus on good governance and why we are supporting our clubs to achieve NGB affiliation. It’s why we all have an important part to play in ensuring we promote a culture of safeguarding, where we encourage people to speak out where they have concerns about anything and where we champion diversity. This week the media has once again been dominated by stories of bullying and harassment, this time the focus has been on Hollywood and in a mainstream Paralympic sport in this country. What struck me most about the allegations was a sense that in both situations there must have been many people who knew that things were not right but for whatever reason did not feel able to speak out. We want to be known as a sport which enables a growing number of people to experience and enjoy our game and for helping to facilitate communities which enrich the lives of all individuals, athletes, volunteers, families and partners. This means we have to encourage people to speak out when things seem not to be right even if that sometimes feels uncomfortable in doing so. It also means that we all have to listen, learn and take action where it is needed. People back us at the moment because they have confidence in us, but we cannot be complacent and we must all remain alert to anything which could threaten our reputation as an organization that people feel proud to support and be part of.
Over the last week I have met with head coach Paul Shaw and GB team manager Lee Stutely to plan next year’s elite programme. We intend for it to be a challenging one and we are basing our plans on achieving the funds necessary to get us to the World Championships in Australia as a competitive team capable of winning a medal. Based on our Rio and European performances this is a realistic target but it does mean that we need to be playing the best in the world ahead of the world’s next year. To that end, I am pleased to announce that we will be staging an international tournament between 9-11 March next year at the Leicester Arena. It will be a 4 team tournament and we will be announcing the teams in a press statement very soon. Martyn Salt, who was behind the successful staging of BTWWRC15 and more recently has been involved in the staging of successive Invictus Games has agreed to be the Event Director and is already well advanced with his plans. I am very excited about this tournament. It will bring top class wheelchair rugby to the UK again and enable more people to see the game at the very highest level. It will also allow us to showcase our sport to potential partners and investors as well as provide an opportunity for us to create community engagement and activity on the back of the event.
Many of you will have seen the ‘call for action’ from the wider rugby community that our Patron Jason Leonard wrote in the I Paper last week. It was well received and as a result we saw a spike in donations via Just Giving. Jason holds a special place in the hearts of most in the rugby world so his intervention in the funding debate is an important and valuable one for us. Our ambassador Mike Brown has also been in the news as he suffered an ankle injury and missed some games though is now fit and has returned to duty with Harlequins. Perhaps what is less known is that he and his lovely wife Eliza have just become parents to Jax Tiger Brown! Many congratulations to them and we wish Jax a long and healthy life and look forward to seeing whether he takes after his father on the rugby field or grandfather, Tony Woodcock on the soccer pitch!
Finally, many congratulations to the GB Invictus team which won the silver medal in Toronto. Jenx once again did an amazing job coaching the team with Stuart Robinson the captain benefiting from his experience as part of the GB team. I know that both are disappointed not to have repeated the gold they won in London in 2015 but having got the bronze in Florida last year this marks a step up at a time when all nations are improving. The BT Super Series is also now well underway with Burn looking to see if they can maintain their hold on Division 2 when the second league weekend starts on Saturday. Meanwhile Tigers top Division 1 with 10 points following 5 from 5 wins. I am sure Storm will have their sights on ending that run!
David Pond
