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Going through the £10k barrier
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Going through the £10k barrier

 
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Auchinleckian
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Joined: 21 Nov 2008
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 27, 2017 11:00 am 
Post subject: Going through the £10k barrier
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This is the fifth season I have been raising money for my club, Auchinleck Talbot, by selling on donated items from fans to help raise money to improve our Beechwood Park ground. It was done originally to bring our ground up to SFL Bronze award level which would have guaranteed us entry into the Scottish Cup automatically every year - a huge money spinner for a club of our means. However, the SFL belatedly moved the posts and this is now no longer an option, but ground improvemnets continue apace.

We have our fourth annual ATFC Programme and Memorabilia Fair on Sunday, November 12th at our Beechwood Park ground. We started this at a time when fairs were as dead as a dodo in Scotland, and there hadn't been one for many moons (I think the last one was done by the Tartan Army? Tyine will put me right am sure) We made it so it could be sustainable - cheap stall rentals being the important thing to attract the sellers. All the dealers weren't interested, so advertising for collectors with the inevitable boxes of spares bought forward a number of initial volunteers, and the fact we are now going into our fourth such fair shows that if fairs can be done for fundriasing purposes rtaher than individual gain they can be sustainable up here.

So what has the money gone into? We now have toilet facilities inisde the ground for the disabled, for females and males too. This is quite a significant step at our grade of football which sees so little done in terms of spectator facility because of a real lack of funding. There's been a new stand built, a new catering facility (not a bog standard pie hut any more!) and I have an all singing, all dancing Programme and Memoerabilia Hut, which must be the first new build of any such facility in a generation inside a Scottish football ground. Obviously, all this hasn't been done on the back of what we've managed to sell in terms of programmes - and I still get bagfuls of the stuff given to me at most games - but has most certainly contributed to it, which the fans really appreciate it, and they've bought into it in a big way indeed.

The Fair, will, am confidently predicting see us crash through the £10,000 barrier since we started. In truth, we've probably exceeded this already but with certain expenses like bags and boxes for storage purposes, partial petrol costs for attending Fairs in England etc it's the money in the bank that counts.

For me, it's great to have a cracking wee hut to do what I love doing, selling programmes and memorabilia, chatting to the punters on matchday, and meeting many new folk as well. It mirrors what I did thirty years ago this year when along with two friends in Grimsby, Ron Cowling and Sid Woodhead, we set up RJS Programmes and ran the clubshop at Blundell Park, creating a programme haven for collectors.

Recently, the club has been approached by someone wanting to use the social club facilities to start a Football Memories group, which aims to help folk suffering from the likes of Alzheimer's to rekindle memories through the use of fotball. I've offered the facilities of our shop to them so they can have items to use in the group free of charge, and it's another way of making not just the shop viable but making it an important community asset in the end.

If anyone would like to come along to our fair, we'd be delighted to see you. It's an International weekend so no club football on to distract you. It's from 11am until 1,30pm, admission is free, and it's a cracking wee day out.
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Supermono13



Joined: 23 Jul 2016
Posts: 198

PostPosted: Fri Oct 27, 2017 12:02 pm 
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John

Superb.

Well done and all the best for the future.

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GrestytheLion



Joined: 18 Jun 2014
Posts: 203

PostPosted: Fri Oct 27, 2017 12:37 pm 
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Congratulations, a truly amazing achievement

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Flaming Pie



Joined: 26 Nov 2016
Posts: 923

PostPosted: Fri Oct 27, 2017 1:43 pm 
Post subject: Going through the £100 barrier
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Auchinleckian,, great work that you are involved in.Your mention of the centre being used to help alsimers sufferers , with memory sessions ,is interesting. I was reading that three of the England 1966 team,,Nobby, Martin Peters and Ray Wilson now have this condition.Tommy Smith also is suffering with dementia.Surely there must be a link with heading those old footballs? Over the years, and in the present day,, too many former players seem to be have got alsimers or dementia. I can imagine that the memory sessions are a great help to the sufferers and their families.
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Auchinleckian
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Joined: 21 Nov 2008
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 27, 2017 2:02 pm 
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There's a local dementia group in our village and I did a few sessions in there on a similar basis, taking in Scotland International programmes from the 1960s and 70s and rekindling memories with them - it's amazing to see the change with such conditions when they realise their viewpoints and what they are saying has some significance. They sudenly become expert for a wee while instead of having someone say "they've got Alzheimer's" and making folk feel sorry for them.
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