BLESMA Charity All-nighter
The Armed Forces Scooter Club have supported BLESMA as their favoured charity for over 20 years. During that time, the club has made huge efforts to raise much-needed funds for this very worthy cause.
President of AFSC, Simon Cuerden, who is also a serial custom scooter builder and well known Northern Soul all-nighter scene character, decided to take fundraising for Blesma into a new arena, setting up an all-nighter with all proceeds from the event going to Blesma. Over to Simon...
“A British service person is supposed to be protected by the ‘Covenant’, a promise the Government makes to them. This was broken some time back, leaving lots of out of action service personnel feeling abandoned and worthless.
“For those who have suffered the loss of a limb or an eye, there is an awesome but hardly known charity called Blesma. Some time ago I decided to replicate the efforts of the Armed Forces Scooter Club by organising a Northern soul all-nighter with all proceeds going to Blesma.
“I asked Brent Howarth and Mick Heffernan if they would give me their all-nighter venues and they said yes! I was quite taken aback. Next, I needed 24 DJs who would be prepared to travel at their own expense and stand around all Saturday night to play their precious records for an hour each, with no payment. They said yes too! The DJs represented the crème de la crème of the all-nighter scene.
“All were going to do their thing for Blesma. We had the top venue and a dream line-up. Saturday, February 24, on a cold winter’s evening, good people of the all-nighter scene gathered in numbers to support this amazing event. We had two rooms blasting out the very best rare soul records, from all sub-genres all played from original vinyl.
“To say the all-nighter was a success would be the understatement of the year. We raised a staggering £1234.35 that night. Money is tight, people are feeling the pinch but they gave. They have made a brilliant impact; this will improve the lives of people who need our support.
“I want to thank all at Scootering for helping with this. There are many willing this along. We have a plan to roll this charity drive out for the year culminating in October with an auction of Northern Soul Memorabilia, including some special items donated by Scootering magazine. Dignity and self-worth, we are doing our best to play a part restoring this for those who will not be forgotten. The great British public are the best firepower we have, and it is a mighty force! Thank you all.”
In addition to the successful Blesma all-nighter, the soul scene has additionally contributed via collections and the like to Blesma: Macclesfield Soul Club, Wiganer 1 Promotions, Follow Your Heart and Goldsoul are giving support.
Work has already begun on plans for a Blesma fund-raising all-nighter for next year provisionally planned for June 2019. As soon as more details are available they will be appearing in Scootering. So watch this space. Words: Sarge Photographs: Gill Moore