A Night to Inspire – Courtesy of AFC and Getty
The Arsenal Foundation’s ‘A Night To Inspire’ Raises Record Fundraising Total
The Arsenal Foundation’s flagship annual fundraiser, A Night To Inspire, hosted by comedian and Arsenal fan, Matt Lucas raised an incredible record total of £464,841 at Emirates Stadium tonight (Thursday 18 May).
Thanks to the generosity of the Arsenal first-team, manager, Arsène Wenger and attending guests, The Arsenal Foundation will continue its work to reach even more people in the UK and overseas through its support of a variety of sport, education and arts programmes.
Generous bids were made on a variety of lots on the night to reach the impressive fundraising total. A private dinner with the Arsenal manager went for £24,000, a round of foot golf with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain fetched £2,800, whilst the opportunity to be in the Arsenal first-team squad picture next season was snapped up for £5,500.
On a special night at Arsenal’s home, guests enjoyed a dinner designed by Raymond Blanc and a performance from R & B girl group M.O. Arsenal players also entertained guests challenging them to games of table football, photobombing unsuspecting guests in a special photobooth and lending a hand in Arsenal’s very own boot sale – selling signed football boots with all proceeds going to The Arsenal Foundation.
Building on the work of the Arsenal Legends game in September 2016, which saw the construction of pitches in partnership with Save the Children in Jordan and Somalia and Ray Parlour’s recent trip to open three pitches in Indonesia, this year’s event saw the inclusion of a special auction lot for Save the Children. This was to ensure the pitches are sustainable and provide the critical support and life skills training needed to empower the young children who use them.
Ray Parlour opens Arsenal Foundation funded football pitches in North Jakarta, Indonesia with Save the Children
Funds were also raised to help The Arsenal Foundation continue its support for a wide range of local initiatives – from helping to refurbish football pitches in north London to backing sports, arts and community projects close to Emirates Stadium. This year saw the announcement of continued support for Arsenal Legend, Bob Wilson’s Willow Foundation which provides special days for seriously ill young adults and the opening of a music therapy room at Nordoff Robbins’ newly refurbished centre in Kentish Town – the country’s only purpose built music therapy centre.
What brings the diverse work of The Arsenal Foundation’s local and global giving is the belief that with the right support, young people can thrive.
The above is brought to you courtesy of Arsenal FC but what follows is a Twitters Rogues Gallery of the Gala Evening and is brought to you by Gunners Town with a litte help from some Tollington freinds……
Lovely Lolly. oh yeh and Akhil with The Ox @10akhil @lolly37
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So Alex are you off to Liverpool? @10akhil
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Mr and Mrs @Geezypeas and Rick’s Dad with the Great man Bob Wilson
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Letty & Lauren (@le77y64 and @Lolly37) with our prestnt and our future captain??
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Lady and @Sir_Livers with some German lazy chap!!
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In the battle of the designer beards Ricky (@Geeztpeas) lost
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Lady and @Sir_Livers John with some odd chaps
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Was Ricky speechless meeting his hero? – Doubt it
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Akhil tells Rob the Defenders Holding the Midfielders Coq joke
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The Tollington Crew having a bit of a do
Looks like everyone had a fabulous evening and thanks for allowing me to use your pictures guys – Not that I asked!
ENDS
Passionate fifty-something Arsenal supporter who has been making the journey to N5 regularly since the early 1980s – although his first game was in 1976. Always passionate when talking about The Arsenal, Dave decided to send a guest blog to Gunnersphere in the summer of 2011 and has not stopped writing about the Gunners since.
He set up his own site – 1 Nil Down 2 One Up – in February 2012, which he moved on in 2016 to concentrate on freelance writing and building Gunners Town, which he launched with Paul in 2014.
The objective of GT was to be new and fresh and to give a platform for likeminded passionate Arsenal fans wishing to write about their team. Dave still of course, writes for the site himself and advises the ever-changing writing crew.
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