Registered Children’s charity the Oakland Foundation, which supports children, young people and their families from Redditch, Bromsgrove and the surrounding areas, has raised over £12,000 from their Charity Ball held at the National Motorcycle Museum on Friday 6th September.
The pre-evening entertainment began with a powerful and moving music selection performed by the Ipsley RSA Academy school choir whilst magician Infiniti Magic entertained arriving guests. Compere radio presenter Dan Kelly then introduced the night’s entertainers which included Ipsley RSA Academy’s school choir, TV personality and singer Ray Quinn and tribute 80s cover band Retro Electro.
Oakland Foundation Trustee, Hayley Smith, commented: “The Oakland Foundation Charity Ball was an amazing success, both in terms of raising much needed funds for the Foundation but also for providing our guests with a brief insight into the work of the Foundation with local schools such as the Ipsley RSA Academy.
“Words are quite simply inadequate to express our deepest thanks and appreciation to our kind and generous supporters, sponsors and donors, and to our guests, who have all helped make this possible. The night was a huge and resounding triumph and we couldn’t have done it without the support we received and we hope individuals and companies are now inspired to get involved and support their local community and to explore how they can get involved by supporting the work of the Foundation.”
With the aim of helping to reduce child poverty within Redditch and Bromsgrove, the charity was founded six years ago by Redditch based food supply chain company Oakland International. The latest figures from End Child Poverty (May 2019) state that today 30% of children in the UK are living in poverty and 67% of children in poverty have at least one parent in work. Currently over 31.8% of children in Redditch and over 22% of children in Bromsgrove living in poverty.
To date, the Foundation has supported a diverse number of educational and youth projects including the Redditch Food Bank, YMCA, Mentor Link, Bromsgrove and Redditch schools, youth projects, sports clubs and Redditch Active Kitchen, which provides youth activity programmes and food during school holidays.
Children and young people from Redditch and Bromsgrove are now set to benefit from the proceeds of the Foundation’s Charity Ball. Sponsors included SPAR UK, Calderhead Refrigerated Transport, Lorica Insurance Brokers, Perfect Personnel, Starkey Electrical, Supreme Systems and Oakland International.
For information on how you can get involved and support the Oakland Foundation please call: 07964 001705 or email: enquiries@oakland-foundation.com. All proceeds from the event will go to support the local work of the Oakland Foundation charity.
A brief overview of the types of recent support provided by the Oakland Foundation:
• 14 different organisations helped during 2018/19.
• Provided over 1,000 holiday meals since 2017 as a contributor to Active Kitchen.
• Over 1,100 girls in 2019 benefited via the ‘This Girl Can’ programme which the Foundation supports in partnership with Sports Partnership Herefordshire and Worcestershire.
• Over 150 children have been provided with sports activities throughout this summer.
• Over 400 breakfasts have been provided each year to pupils undertaking SATS.
• To date in 2019 the Foundation has worked with, and supported, 5 local schools.