show me the money
By Nigel Davies
Sponsored by MyMedicines
The Covid crisis may have scuppered many of our methods to raise money but that hasn’t stopped ATFV making a difference in the community. We have a major fundraising campaign and a kit donation to report on…….
It’s been a challenging time for all charities with events unable to take place for the last several months and many people facing an uncertain financial future, leaving them unable to make donations.
As Editor of A Touch Far Vetched that’s eaten away at me over the weeks and months, and with a secure full time job I’m luckier than most – so I decided to get off my backside and put my money where my unfeasibly large mouth is.
So the first thing I did was take the industrial strength padlock off my wallet and fulfil a promise that had been twelve months in the making by supplying some sports kit and equipment to Ysgol Hendrefelin.
I’d been asked by a work colleague whether ATFV could help the school and naturally I said yes; I was put in touch with Rob Spendiff, PE Teacher at the school, and from there we started talking about what was needed. Everything got scuppered though, firstly by a couple of enforced changes of supplier and then of course by the pandemic closing down schools and retail.
The wait was worth it in the end though as ATFV supplied eight new sports kits (comprising multi purpose sports tops, shorts and socks), ten new footballs and ten new rugby balls at a cost of just under £400.
Ysgol Hendrefelin is a Social, Emotional and Behavioral Difficulties (SEBD) School and I could tell you what a huge difference a donation of this nature makes. But I’d rather leave it to the teacher and the pupils to do that, so here’s PE teacher Rob first:-
“It was amazing how supportive ATFV has been. Being an SEBD school we have smaller groups which can make sports games a little more difficult.
“With Nigel’s help and support we have now received full sports kit and equipment which really has improved participation in sports in the school.
“I cannot thank ATFV enough for its huge efforts to help and support others. All at Ysgol Hendrefelin support ATFV in its continued efforts to help local communities.”
And the last word on this goes to Year 9 pupil Luke:-
“Having new kit is amazing! We have some kit in school but it’s old. The new one is a proper kit with a logo and our badge – now when we play our games we look like a team! Thank you Nigel and ATFV!”
We might well have helped the youngsters at Ysgol Hendrefelin but our community work is nowhere done and our next target is to help the patients in the Children’s Wards at Morriston Hospital.
I got a little overwrought at Christmas as for the first time in at least a decade there was no ATFV shopping trip to restock the Play Room – and so on Boxing Day I launched The ATFV Toy Story fundraising campaign. The original intention was to raise £1,000 to buy new toys in the summer, but the target and the objective have now changed.
After consulting with the Play Leader at the Hospital I discovered that the Play Room has been closed due to Covid for the last six months and it will remain closed for the foreseeable future.
The alternative plan now is to raise a minimum of £1,800 so that we can purchase a bespoke “gaming cart” that will allow the staff to take video games to a young patient’s bedside.
Thanks to the incredible generosity of a number of a number of supporters we’ve already broken through the thousand pound mark. Included in the total on our Just Giving page is a fantastic £200 donation from Argos Pontardawe for which I’m extremely grateful, as I am for all the donations on there, big or small.
But as I said earlier, it was time for me to put my money where my mouth is and so for the rest of the season I’ll be coughing up a quid for every Championship point and goal the Swans secure, with a bonus fiver if Jamal Lowe scores…it’s just a fun way to keep the total ticking over and backing the team at the same time.
With £1,200 already accumulated the race is on now to raise the rest of the cash to buy the games cart as soon as possible – and then we’ll keep raising money so that we can buy a whole new batch of toys when the Play Room finally opens back up again.
And you can help by clicking the DONATE button below and adding any spare pennies you have to our Just Giving page
