Children’s charity passes £3m fundraising milestone

A COVENTRY and Warwickshire charity group has reached an incredible landmark by raising £3 million for vulnerable children in the region.

The Coventry and Warwickshire Children’s Charity formerly the Coventry and Warwickshire Business Board - reached the impressive fundraising milestone following its annual ball at the Ricoh Arena.

More than 550 guests attended the Glitz and Glamour Ball with more than £75,000 raised alone at this year’s event, taking the group’s total fundraising amount for the NSPCC to £3 million - which will help to support vulnerable young people from the area.

The money came through ticket sales, 12-month pledges made by local companies, the Diamond Challenge and live and silent auctions which took place on the evening, and will be donated to Boole House, the NSPCC’s operational centre in Coventry.

Guests were wowed with entertainment by crooner Wayne Woodward of Britain’s Got Talent fame who was back by popular demand following his performance at last year’s event.

Hamilton Bland, who organised the ball and is also a trustee for the charity, expressed the charity’s excitement at having reached such an incredible fundraising milestone at the event.

He said: “The annual ball is one of our biggest fundraising events each year, and it’s wonderful that at this event we were able to pass such an outstanding target.

“The charity works hard to raise as much money as possible for children in need through our annual golf days, Jaguar drive events and our carol concert in December, so it’s incredible that the hard work has paid off and we’ve reached the £3 million mark.

“We’d like to thank the main sponsors for this year’s event Jaguar Land Rover, Lear and DAIFUKU and also all of our attendees for helping us to reach this milestone.”

Chair of the charity, Chris Thorp, added: “We are absolutely delighted to have reached the £3 million fundraising mark at this year’s dinner! I would like to thank the ball’s organising committee for their hard work in pulling together such a wonderful event, everyone had a fantastic time which is entirely down to their hard work.

“We’re looking forward to continuing our fundraising efforts with our carol concerts and Christmas Jumper Days in December, which are always popular and help us to continue increasing this incredible fundraising target.”