On Friday 17th March, we once again had the pleasure of attending the Ipswich Sporting Lunch Club, an initiative that we have supported for many years.
The event helps raise money for SportsAid, an organisation that helps more young sportsmen and women from the county with the cost of training and competing at an elite level.
With many of us either parents, sports-mad or a combination of the two, it is always a highly inspirational and often humbling occasion. Of course, it’s lovely to have an opportunity to share the table with some clients based within the area, which this year included Jamie and Rae from STC Teamwear, Jon Neal CEO of Suffolk Mind, and Nigel Seaman, founder of Combat2Coffee.
“All the businesses involved in sponsoring the Ipswich Sporting Lunch Club are proud to stand alongside SportsAid in supporting the next generation of young athletes from the county. It’s not easy reaching the top in any walk of life so if we can give a young athlete a helping hand we will. The payback is seeing them achieving their dreams and, hopefully, going on to inspire a generation.”
Sarah Smith, Chief People Officer
Regional Director of SportsAid Eastern Jane Horridge said “SportsAid is extremely grateful to each and every sponsor, and all the businesses that attended the event, for their generous support of young sportsmen and women from Suffolk. Without them we simply wouldn’t be able to help so many young people from the county.”
Greg Whyte inspires the room
As always, the event was inspiring and entertaining in equal turns, made extra-special with Greg Whyte as our speaker. Greg, who is an Olympian (modern pentathlon), European and World Championship medalist and internationally renowned sports scientist, has successfully trained, motivated and successfully coached the likes of David Walliams, Eddie Izzard, John Bishop and many other household names, to complete extraordinary challenges in aid of Sport Relief and Comic Relief and has raised over £45million for charity through the challenges.
Supporting the brightest sports stars
One of the many highlights of the lunch was Greg’s presentation of a SportsAid grant to Isaac Kingham, an aspiring table tennis player from Ipswich – one of the many young people to be supported by SportsAid with funding raised through the lunch club. Isaac, who is 14 years-old, is one of the best table tennis players in the country and has already represented England in a major tournament in Hungary.
Stand-out business sponsorship
For StrategiQ, it was an opportunity to catch up with local business leaders and professionals including fellow sponsors Pound Gates Chartered Insurance Brokers, Ensors Chartered Accountants, Ellisons Solicitors, Handelsbanken and Beckett Financial Services.
More information about SportsAid can be found at www.sportsaideastern.co.uk.
