Image Courtesy of Gail D’Almaine
On Friday 25th September over 170 people arrived at Vicarage Road Stadium with bulging wallets and ready to change local lives. Dressed to the nines our guests enjoyed a 3 course meal and live entertainment from DEMAND’s very own Fundraising Manager Denise Gillies and her band, Queen Dee and the Hornets, who did nothing short of impress.
Led by one of Chorleywood’s finest, Martin Clarkson, our guests enjoyed the debut screening of 5 short films, each highlighting problems DEMAND has been tasked to solve in order to make life easier and more fulfilled for people with disabilities and their families.
The incredible generosity of our guests on the night, coupled with sponsorship from supportive local businesses means that DEMAND has the available funding to go ahead and complete each of the 5 projects showcased on the night. Over 300 people will benefit from the custom design solutions DEMAND will make in order to overcome the challenges featured in our short films.
Image Courtesy of Gail D’Almaine
Among those who will benefit are students at The Collett School for children with learning disabilities in Hemel Hempstead, where their teacher Anu Grey has been working with DEMAND to find a solution that lets their students take time out to de-stress and learn to self regulate their emotions.
With a donation from Warner Brothers on the night DEMAND now has the funds to make enough chairs so that each of the students in the school will be able to find one quickly when they need to. This brings the grand total for the night to over £24,000!
Image Courtesy of Gail D’Almaine
These donations are more generous than we could have hoped for, what a wonderful way to celebrate our 35th year helping people with disabilities by knowing we can help at least 300 more local people. We want to express our huge thanks to Imagine Group, Heronslea, Intu Watford, West Herts College, Bushey Hall Garage, Boys & Girls Nursery, Warner Brothers. MyNews, LaserLines and Calculus IT for their corporate sponsorship, along with EasyPro Video for producing our 5 wonderful films, Cakes of Good Taste, DJ Ian Frost, Gail D’Almaine Photography for offering their services and of course every one of our guests for helping to reach the incredible total for the night!