[Archived] Season Tickets For Charity

[Hypo-Luxa]

Hello all! I'm back from a long and protracted absence. The doldrums got me, I must admit, and the whole business of Hughes leaving really got me by the nape and kicked me around. But I'm back and ready to start this initiative for next year!

Once again we'll be shooting for some season tickets to donate to the local charities. We were able to raise enough funds to get 6 tickets last year (2 adults, 4 children). We'd of course like to meet or beat that amount so anyone who wants to donate a few quid is more than welcome. I want to stress that this is a drive that is collecting ANY SUM YOU WISH TO DONATE. This isn't a season ticket or nothing kind of initiative. If someone wants to donate a fiver, that is fine. A few donations like that and we have enough for a child's ticket. For example, last year we had donations of anywhere between 10 pound to 360 pound. with this wide range of donation amounts we were able to get the 6 tickets mentioned before.

Wendy, our charity liaison from last season, has signed up once again to help us out which is massive, but there might be a time where we need to call on some other intrepid Blackburn resident/fan to help with the pick-up/distribution of the tickets. But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

The procedure for donating will be the same as before. Donating via PayPal to dtbranam@yahoo.com is still the preferred option, but if anyone doesn't want to fiddle with PayPal they can contact me directly and we can work something else out. Again I will be publishing the amount donated amongst the donors in order to keep everything as transparent as possible, so if you want your donation to be anonymous, please let me know. If you need any assistance setting up a PayPal account let me know as well.

If anyone is not clear about what exactly this charity drive does or is intended to do, or any details from last year's drive you can always contact me and I'll answer any questions. Messaging me through the message Board is fine as well as e-mailing me at dtbranam@yahoo.com is fine as well.

Also as an aside, if anyone runs a supporter club and/or website could you spread the word amongst your members? While we got a lot of donations from the British Isles, we also received quite a bit from the overseas crowd without much publicity outside of this site. I would like to get the word out further afield to see if we can't expand our donation pool.

Once again, thank you to everyone who donated last year and a great big thanks to anyone who wants to donate for the upcoming season. I cannot wait to get this started again and continue making a difference in children's lives. As much as we (me sometimes more than most) get hung up on the week to week and day to day issues of the club, it is really refreshing to hear the reactions of the kids who have never seen a Rovers game nor get the opportunity to see Ewood. Their joy at experiencing a live Rovers game at Ewood shows that there is more to the game than who's getting paid too much a week or who hasn't scored lately.

Cheers and hope to hear from you all!

[American Rover12]

Is there a website with all of this information on, something to link to in order to show other people and to link on other sites?

[Hypo-Luxa]

Is there a website with all of this information on, something to link to in order to show other people and to link on other sites?

Sorry for the delay in responding but I had about 20 people in my house over the past weekend (The Yank Independence Day holiday was this past weekend) so I wasn't able to check in on my favorite footy messageboard...

As for the question, yes there is actually a web-site, but the site is currently under construction. It is here http://www.seasonticketsforcharity.com/indexb.html

and it is just a bare-bones version of what we want it to be in the future. Big thanks to cn174 for getting this page built. In the very near future we hope to have a link to PayPal directly as well as BRFCS link and a Donation Gauge to show how we are doing in terms of tickets. So we're trying to get it up and running with all of it's proposed working parts, but I don't know how quickly it can be done.

But as soon as anything is u[dated I'll share it with the rest of you all.

Oh and if anyone is new to the site or would like a refresher of how it went last season without trolling through past threads, here is the original post

[Hypo-Luxa]

Hello again everyone. Please excuse my lack of posts the past week and the next week. I was in Mexico on holiday last week and came back to get my torn ACL replaced last Thursday. So while my posting has and will be sporadic the next few weeks, luckily the donations haven't. We got our first donation last week and I have gotten a few more verbal commitments so should have our first ticket by the end of the week. August IS coming 'round more quickly than I'd like so I'm hoping to get those donations rolling in before long.

For the site which is still under construction, we are looking to add a ticker which will detail the name, the donation and a message from the donor. This ticker for right now is a manual entry, so if you'd rather stay 100% anonymous just let me know in the message part of your PayPal payment and I will just list the amount donated and nothing else. But again, even if you donate a tenner, it is good for the rest of us to see. There were some last year who didn't donate last year because they thought their less-than-season-ticket amount wouldn't be useful. Now I take the blame that I didn't explain it very well at the outset that any amount would be helpful, but this year I hope for it to be clear that we are not accepting ONLY season tickets, but any amount you would like to donate.

At any rate, thanks to everyone who has donated or contacted me about donating, and don't take my sporadic posting as a sign of inactivity, because things have begun to roll!

[cn174]

Just a quick update, the website is up and running now, just a few more bits to add on which will be coming soon.

http://www.seasonticketsforcharity.com

Cheers

[American Rover12]

Thanks for that. That'll be up on the Blackburn Offside by tonight.

[dcbrfc]

Given you a plug at The Rovers Return

[Mike Graham]

donation on it's way Hypo.

I'm in the States in October if you want any Rovers stuff bringing over...eg Rovers home and away programmes.

cheers

Mike

[Hypo-Luxa]

Thanks guys, for your mentions on your blogs! Hopefully some Supporter's Clubs can get it mentioned as well.

More donations have rolled in and we're close to the 200 pound mark(the site hasn't updated that yet, so that means two children's tickets right there! Now of course we still need to get the adult tickets squared away which is the biggest hurdle, BUT, I think that will happen if the verbal commitments hold up, which I think they will.

At any rate I want to set a soft deadline for August 14th which is only 2 days prior to the Season starting. Because we are starting Away..AGAIN...this should give us enough time to get our payment into the ticket office early enough to have everything sorted by the time Hull comes to town on the 23rd. Now I say it is the soft deadline as we do have a few days leeway, but I'd really like to get it done in enough time where the Ticket Office doesn't have to make any exceptions for us. A lot of people with the club are out on holiday these next few weeks but we should be fine since the arrangement worked out fairly well last year.

So keep those donations coming and let's go to Portugal and get a few good performances from the lads!

[spanishblue]

I've just made my donation, I think it's a brilliant idea and hope you managed to get the all the season tickets.

[Mike Graham]

donation on it's way Hypo.

I'm in the States in October if you want any Rovers stuff bringing over...eg Rovers home and away programmes.

cheers

Mike

Hypo

also now got a further trip to Idaho in October on top of Seattle and Ameilia Island. Is that anywher near you??

[Hypo-Luxa]

Hypo

also now got a further trip to Idaho in October on top of Seattle and Ameilia Island. Is that anywher near you??

Heh, Idaho is closer to the center of the States but pretty far north. Unfortunately Texas is a looong way from your destinations. Maybe next time, though!

And Thank you, SpanishBlue for the donation! We're getting there slowly but surely!

[West Aussie]

Hypo

I'll contribute again, just got back from Holidays so when I get my ###### together I'll send it to you.

I notice your still using paypal, don't you lose a few dollars on transactions etc ?

Are you still happy with this ? any better way so you get the full amount.

Regards

West Aussie

[Rovers in America]

Hypo, I'll be contributing soon. We'll also have to figure out a game to meet up to watch. You'll have to send me your preferred email again, not sure I have it still.

[Hypo-Luxa]

Hypo

I'll contribute again, just got back from Holidays so when I get my ###### together I'll send it to you.

I notice your still using paypal, don't you lose a few dollars on transactions etc ?

Are you still happy with this ? any better way so you get the full amount.

Regards

West Aussie

Was wondering when the Aussie contingent was going to jump in. The Aussies were a great part of the initiative last year and hopefully they can replicate that effort.

As far as PayPal goes, yeah there is some loss of money that goes to the PayPal coffers, but I pay for that loss out of my donation so that there is no loss of money from the donors' end. It isn't the perfect way to handle the donations, but I as of yet haven't found that perfect solution. So if anyone wants to donate an amount and could put in an extra few quid to grease the PayPal palms, that would help out, but you are by no means obligated to. So for example; you could turn a donation of 25 pounds into 27 pounds with 2 pounds going to the PayPal fee and 25 pounds going towards the donation. Again this is just if you want to. I don't mind paying the difference as I haven't really found a better way to conduct these transactions. Just let me know in the payment message that you are contributing a few extra quid for the fee if you choose to do so.

Hypo, I'll be contributing soon. We'll also have to figure out a game to meet up to watch. You'll have to send me your preferred email again, not sure I have it still.

Hey man, yeah we do need to meet up again for another match. Although, we have to find a better place to watch the match. And do we have to wait 'til after TCU football season for your weekends to be free? For the e-mail, just use my dtbranam@yahoo.com addy since I check that regularly these days (and can access it at work! YAY!).

And for everyone who might be thinking about donating, it has turned to August now and we are getting very very close to the opening of the season. So if you have been planning on donating but have put it off thus far (like I am wont to do), hop on it this week, if you can, so we have a good estimate for the Ticket Office when I give them a ring next Monday.

As for the others who want to donate but just don't have the finances yet, we do have some time. And while we aren't in Europe this year, there will be Cup matches to buy tickets for so donations after the deadline will still be welcome.

Again I appreciate everyone's participation thus far and cannot wait until the season starts.

[Rovers in America]

Hey man, yeah we do need to meet up again for another match. Although, we have to find a better place to watch the match. And do we have to wait 'til after TCU football season for your weekends to be free? For the e-mail, just use my dtbranam@yahoo.com addy since I check that regularly these days (and can access it at work! YAY!).

And for everyone who might be thinking about donating, it has turned to August now and we are getting very very close to the opening of the season. So if you have been planning on donating but have put it off thus far (like I am wont to do), hop on it this week, if you can, so we have a good estimate for the Ticket Office when I give them a ring next Monday.

As for the others who want to donate but just don't have the finances yet, we do have some time. And while we aren't in Europe this year, there will be Cup matches to buy tickets for so donations after the deadline will still be welcome.

Again I appreciate everyone's participation thus far and cannot wait until the season starts.

It seems most of TCU's home games start between 5-7pm this year, so I should be good most of the year outside of labor day weekend and the weekends of Sept 20 & 27 where I'll be out of town going to road games since Blackburn games would be in the late morn/early afternoon. As for a place to try, we could always try that Tigris place around DFW airport. Traffic may suck a bit, but it seems to be a pretty big spot to watch games from what I hear, plus I think they're open for the early games. I know the Fox and Hound by me is getting Setanta this season, but that's a ways for you since it's SW Fort Worth. Although I'll be moving to North Fort Worth end of the year, so a bit closer to you.

[Hypo-Luxa]

Ok everyone, we're at the last week for the charity drive. We need everyone's donations by next Monday at the absolute latest if you are still wanting to donate. We're already a bit later than I had wanted in order to give the ticket office ample time to process our tickets. However, I want to give everyone as much time as possible to donate, so hopefully the ticket office will understand.

So far we have enough for 2 adult tickets and 3 children's tickets which is one child's ticket behind where we were last year. I have tried to contact Crown paints to let them know of what Bet24 did last year in donating tickets to the charity, but haven't received word back yet.

So that is really it from my end. if you are thionking of donating and haven't gotten around to pushing that "Donate" button, this week's your last chance before the season tickets are purchased. Again, if you cannot donate until after the season tickets are purchased that is fine as well. Any donations collected after next Monday will be put aside for the Cup matches at Ewood.

As always if you have any questions please feel free to let me know.

Cheers!

[Hypo-Luxa]

Wow! What a match on Saturday! And one that will definitely get the kids licking their chops to go see a game at Ewood. The donations for the Season tickets have come in and we have as much as we got last year, which is two adult, and 4 children's tickets. Thanks to everyone who has donated thus far.

Once again the locals stepped up big time to donate a good amount of the total. And once again I have to say this is a very welcome surprise. At the inception of the charity drive I figured it would just be the ex-pats and foreign-based fans who would contribute, but the locals have done a very good thing and added onto their already great patronage to the club. Well done lads and lasses!

And look at what we have in just a week and half's time...a Cup match! Unless we get more donations by the time Grimsby comes to town it doesn't look as if we can get tickets purchased. However, with a win and another home draw we can gain enough time to accrue enough donations in order to send some kids to a Cup match.

Once again, thanks to everyone who sent in donations. No sophomore slump here as we have met last year's number.

Bring on Hull!

[Rovers in America]

Ah, didn't get mine in in time. I'll donate toward cup tickets though. Not sure when we can get together for a game as I could hand you the cash in person and avoid paypal fees, or I could mail you a check. Figure no reason to throw away fee money when we're only like 30-40 miles apart. By the way, how much is a child's ticket generally for cup games? I seem to remember you saying something about 10-20 pounds or something?

[Hypo-Luxa]

Ah, didn't get mine in in time. I'll donate toward cup tickets though. Not sure when we can get together for a game as I could hand you the cash in person and avoid paypal fees, or I could mail you a check. Figure no reason to throw away fee money when we're only like 30-40 miles apart. By the way, how much is a child's ticket generally for cup games? I seem to remember you saying something about 10-20 pounds or something?

Not sure what they are for regular Cup matches. The last time we bought tickets for the Cup match it was a special and the kid's tickets were 10 pound, I believe. And yeah don't worry about the PayPal. We'll get together soon and I'll get your donation then.

As for the game..you definitely need to make the trip up to The Londoner in Addison when we play ManU. My boss who is a Manc fan (along with probably another 100 Manc fans) will be there so I'll need all the Rover support I can get! But since that's in October, we'll need to get together before that. Too bad tomorrow's match isn't televised...Shoot me an e-mail and we'll determine a good weekend and place to watch the match.

[Hypo-Luxa]

Hello everyone. Well our first home game of the year and our first opportunity to get the kiddoes out to see a match. This go around we had a group from Women's Aid and a group from a new group; Victim Support Services. VSS is a service that aids in the recovery of victims of crime, be it burglaries, assault, sex crimes or helping bereaved families cope with a lost one as a result of a violent crime. The Assistant Co-ordinator of VSS is a reader of the boards, so it was a pleasure to help his organization out.

This was a note sent to me by a representative with Women's Aid who was able to use the tickets for her group.

Thank you so much for the Rovers tickets !!!

Three young people and a volunteer went to the match and managed to get their photos taken with

Colin Hendry and Matt Derbyshiret, hese photos where taken on a disposable camera we ahve the copies, would you like me to send them to yourself or would you like me to forward them to the very generous American guy accompanied by a letter of thanks?...

If only she knew that much of the donation was provided from folks right in her backyard! Great to see a Rover Legend and a bright Rover youngster giving their time to take pictures with some kiddoes. I didn't set this up, so this was a great spontaneous opportunity for the children. Maybe this exposure to the legend hendry and to a young star like Matty can inspire the children to be Rovers fans through and through!

I also purchased some tickets for the Grimsby match. We don't have any new donations, but it's so cheap to send these kids to the Cup match I couldn't resist ponying up the cash for them to go. It was less than 50 pound to send the 4 kids and 2 adults, so I figured it was well worth it. I don't know if I can foot any more Cup matches, though, so if anyone would still like to donate, the lines are still open.

Thanks to everyone who has/have helped in this year's donations and if the first two matches are any indication, this year will be an entertaining one if nothing else.

[micktheblue]

I represent Victim Support. I wanted on behalf of the lady and her daughter who benefited from your kind donations and were able to attend the match on Saturday to say a huge thank you!!!! They had a great afternoon. Pity they did not see a Rovers win but we cannot guarentee everything.

Once again thank you for your great charity. I always feel that football and sport in general can at least for a short while take away a persons worries and concerns and fill them with some hope. Even if that is a hope that Rovers may come out victorious!!!

[Ozz]

Contrast the emotions, principles and ethics found on this single thread against the mind blowing cash infested goings on at Eastlands and other Big Clubs in the Premier league right now. Very heart warming. Keep going all those involved, well done.

[Hypo-Luxa]

Thanks ozzie!

So....A follow-up from Saturday's disastrous outing against Arsenal. Not much to say, really. If it weren't for these good notes from the charity liaison's following the home games I'd be one depressed fan.

The Arsenal game was visited by the mentoring program who used some of the tickets last year. Gina Chelton sent this note yesterday:

Thank you once again for the tickets we received via Wendy it is such a special treat for the young people we work with to get the chance to be a part of such an amazing experience (even if they lose) the young boy who went this time with his mentor said he had never seen so many happy people before in his life” I do believe that was when he was going in to the match!

As a charity we would not be able to offer such outings to our young people and I think it is fantastic that you have continued again this year

Thank you

Not sure who will be going to the Fulham match as of yet, but when I know I'll send an update.

The next cup match against Everton has been paid for because of a small snafu with the last Cup match against Grimsby.

I must say that the ticket office has been a great help in this year's initiatibve as they were last year. It's good that they are there for us or else this drive may not have even gotten up off the ground.

At any rate, hopefully the next match will let the kids witness our first home win of the season!

[Hypo-Luxa]

Just received a note from the other group that went to the unfortunate Arsenal match...

I accompanied three of our young people to the Rovers match on Saturday. It was the first time for two of them to of gone on a football match of that scale and they were so excited the score didn’t matter! Two of the boys who came are currently living in the refuge after fleeing their violent father, they are new to the area and the opportunity to go on the football match was extremely appreciated by themselves and their mothers. The other boy who came is being supported by our outreach service and is slowly building his confidence and social networks.

Thank you so much for the tickets, I can assure you they were so grateful for the experience.

Yours Sincerely

Lucy

Also for tomorrow's game, the Women's Aid group as well as another young child with a mentor will be going to Ewood.

A big up also has to be sent to Wendy who is our liaison with the distribution of the tickets. She is no longer working with the company that she was with when we originally initiated the charity, but with her contacts still intact she has volunteered to carry on with the distribution of the tickets.

At any rate, here's hoping we get back on the horse against Fulham and get back to our winning ways.