A charity dinner raised roughly £60,000 for youth sports in Liverpool this week.
Boxing legend Frank Bruno and Toxteth's own world champion, Natasha Jonas, appeared at Liverpool Sporting Dinner's black tie event at the Titanic Hotel's Rum Warehouse on Thursday, December 1. The annual event has raised more than £500,000 for local sporting activities over the 28 years it's been held, including more than £70,000 in 2020 alone.
The exact figure for this year's income from ticket sales and an auction won't be known for two weeks, but an organiser estimated it to be around £60,000. For most of its existence, Liverpool Sporting Dinner has funded the Lord's Taverners, a national youth cricket and disability sport charity, for more than 20 years. Over the last decade, the fundraiser has also supported Dallaglio RugbyWorks, a charity using rugby to reduce school exclusions.
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Although national, both charities are active in Liverpool due in part to the relationship built with Liverpool Sporting Dinner, according to the chair of its organising committee, Dan Sweeney. He told the ECHO: "This isn't a celebrity-filled gala, it's not a room where we necessarily have a huge amount of celebrity bidders. We've got a really staunch group of Merseyside businesspeople who support us."
He added: "There are a lot of people who've done well in business in this city and this region, and if you've benefited within the region, it should be incumbent upon you to give back. Nights like this at the very least give an opportunity to see what's going on and everyone, in a very fun and convivial and social environment, gets a chance to give back."
This year, funds raised through ticket sales and an auction will also go towards the Frank Bruno Foundation, a mental health charity, and to Golden Gloves, a boxing club based on Lodge Lane. Dan, a partner at Addleshaw Goddard law firm, said: "One of the the great things is to give them visibility because, like Golden Gloves particularly, it's resolutely a Liverpool 8-based boxing club.
"It does incredible work in that part of the city and has been doing it for a long time. It isn't necessarily something that has a terrific profile day to day in the Liverpool business community, so it's a chance to see what they're doing and what's on offer for a myriad of reasons."
Carl Smith, 51, is a coach at Golden Gloves, which has been running since 1947. He said: "Loads of the kids don't come in to box, but they get off the streets, keep fit, and it keeps them away from what's going on in the area instead of hanging about. They get into a little routine and they're getting fit at the same time, so they're enjoying it. There are loads of success stories, people turning their lives around after being up to no good.
A group of 11 to 16-year-old boxers from the clubs got up on stage at the event to meet and put on a demonstration for the night's special guests, boxing legends Frank Bruno, 61, and Natasha Jonas, 38. Frank, who took up boxing after being sent to a borstal at the age of 12, became the youngest ever Amateur British Champion when he was 18. Natasha, from Toxteth, was the first ever female British boxer to compete in the Olympics in 2012. This year alone, she's won three world titles.
Natasha, who's worked to encourage young people into sport, said: "Liverpool is a sporting city, we always support one another and we come together. It's been a tough time for charities with covid and obviously with inflation, and people are short of cash. It's great to have events like these to raise money for good causes, and especially sporting causes, which me and Frank are a part of.
"Female boxing was in its infancy when I started. Golden Gloves has always taken in girls and always been supportive of the girls they had. It's from a deprived area, and places like the Golden Gloves, like the Rotunda, a lot of the boxing clubs in Liverpool reach those hard-to-reach kids who the schools, clubs and youth centres can't reach. So it's great to have them doing things like boxing and being disciplined. Boxing is just a skill, but it's the skills you learn from the sport that help you grow and develop into a positive member of the community."
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