Charity and Timeline
MY FIRST PROJECT
September 2019 I decided to create a statue of the Leeds United football club head coach Marcelo Bielsa with my overseas team.
March 2020 My passion for this statue came to reality when he was finally completed, I called up Leeds United and offered them the statue to place either at Elland Road or at the Thorpe Park training ground and asked them to make a donation to charity.
April 2020 Leeds United contacted me directly and politely declined this offer for several reasons, the main reason being that Marcelo doesn't like admiration and that instead of offering it to the club would I consider putting this up for a raffle where the fans can buy a raffle ticket with a chance to win him, I thought this was a great idea and said yes. I then contacted all the local media agencies and started to sell the raffle tickets with a target of £20,000, donations were coming in fast from all the media coverage I had received locally and overseas, as far as Canada and Australia, raffle closing date set to July 2020. We decided that the mental health charity Mind would receive all the donations from the raffle.
May 2020 Kalvin Phillips agrees to raffle the statue and was granted permission from LUFC. I fixed the statue to my truck which I purchased especially for this project back in January 2020 and started to drive him around Yorkshire for the public to see him.
Donations Total £6,875
June 2020 Applied for a street license with LCC so I could take the Bronzed God to Leeds City Centre and promote the raffle to raise more funds, as well as driving the statue to arranged meetings at pubs, social clubs, shopping centres and non league football clubs.
Donation Total £7,960
July 2020 Received a call from LCC and was asked if I had a raffle license which I said no and that I was unaware that I required one, advised that the raffle was unlawful and I could be taken to court, so I called my contact from Mind about this and they confirmed after advice and several calls that this was the case and LCC was right, they then assisted me with LCC to get this resolved as well as applying for a raffle license. After this I decided to extend the raffle so I could focus on getting everything lawful and carry on raising funds for the charity.
Donation Total £9,470
August 2020 Raffle license received and raffle closed. Over the months I had loads of fans ask me if they could purchase one or did I have any smaller ones available to purchase, we then decided to create King of the North (KOTN)45cm sculptures made from a mixture of metal and resin, also that they were a size that would be accepted in to most homes or gardens and at an affordable price.
Donation Total £9,700 & Raffle Closed
September 2020 I spent the most of this month sorting out the terms and conditions for my raffle license with Mind and satisfying Leeds City Council with the raffle so my case could be closed, as I still had to provide details of the system I would use to draw the winners. Launched the website and pre sale of the KOTN sculptures.
October 2020 Announced that the raffle draw date would be the 31st of October and will still be drawn with Kalvin Phillips. Cancelled the first batch of KOTN due to some design problems and quality issues, new design approved by myself and production began.
November 2020 All Raffle winners Notified
February 2021 On the 12th Feb 2021 I received an email from Leeds City Council to say that I have been nominated for a Compassionate City Award 2020. Leeds City Council recognises and values the important and positive work that individuals, community groups and organisations do to make their local communities and the City a better place. I am grateful to have been nominated for an award and look forward to the virtual event held in March.
March 2nd Leeds City Council have recognised my fundraising and they have awarded me with a Highly Commended award in the Health and Wellbeing category. This was for the fundraising in 2020 for the Mental Health charity Mind raising £9,700.
A few photos from the charity run
Project 2
August 2020 I selected the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, Martin House Hospice and the Ciaran Bingham Foundation to support with all sales from my KING of the NORTH sculptures.
September 2020 King of the North Sculptures created and launched for pre order.
October 2020 We managed to finally secure a container booking due to all the shipping delays with Covid-19, the first batch was fully sold out.
November 2020 First batch was loaded and on it's way to our hub.
December 2020 First batch arrived after several shipping delays, I started to deliver all the Yorkshire, Liverpool and Manchester areas personally so I could meet all the supporters and also thank them personally.
23rd December 2020 Last delivery completed in Birmingham which was by myself, due to a glitch in our paperwork which meant we missed the cut off with the external courier.
January 2021 Second batch completed and packed.
February 2021 We are currently waiting an available shipping container, the second batch is now due to arrive late March/Early April.
Project 3
April 2020 Captain Tom Moore came into our lives and acted as an inspiration for the UK and the world, myself and an old friend Keith Sharratt started to work on a joint project.
May 2020 Approved clay and the second process begins.
1st of June 2020 Moulds and resin sample complete, Casting Bronze.
28th of June 2020 Project completed and shared with the family.
July 2020 I received communication from the family.
Covid-19 Shipping problems then caused delays and I was also in the middle of project 1 (Marcelo Bielsa) raising funds for the Mind charity.
October 2020 The Walk Of Hope bronze statue was packed and shipped.
December 2020 The Walk Of Hope bronze statue arrives after nearly 3 weeks of delays due to Covid-19 and port congestions.
January 2021 I decided to take time off from all projects to spend with my family and begin ideas/planning for project 3 The Walk of Hope.
2nd of February News of the passing of Captain Sir Tom Moore.
4th of February We sent our condolences to the Captain Tom Foundation 💕 🌷
4th of February We received communication back thanking us for the wishes.